Show news for a region of your choice (mostly Austraian news).

Patients 'locked in cages' at Bribie Island care facility

By bobb |

Warning: do not read on if you are at all sensitive to distressing news.

Tristan Swanwick, September 01, 2009 12:00am

INTELLECTUALLY impaired residents of a Queensland care home were locked in cages, tied to toilets and struck with fly swatters by staff, a court heard yesterday.

Susan Beryl Lister, 60, yesterday pleaded not guilty in the Brisbane District Court to charges of deprivation of liberty and assault.

Schools telling disabled children to stay at home

By bobb |

Justine Ferrari, Education writer | August 26, 2009

Article from:  The Australian

SCHOOLS are turning children with disabilities into part-time students by restricting their attendance hours in breach of anti-discrimination laws.

Some school principals are limiting the time disabled students are in class to match the hours a teacher's aide or other assistance is available, Macquarie and Sydney university researchers have found.

A first for autism child-care

By bobb |

La Trobe University has been chosen by the Federal Government as Victorian service provider under its new national Autism Specific Early Learning and Care Centres program.

In partnership with the Royal Children’s Hospital, the University will receive $4 million over four years to develop such a centre, co-located with its Community Children’s Centre on the main Melbourne campus at Bundoora.

Family forced to head to UK for autistic son's sake

By bobb |

see http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/20/2661233.htm?site=local

 

A New South Wales family have made the gut-wrenching decision to leave the home and friends they love and move to the UK because they say Australia cannot provide the support and services they need for their autistic son.

It is estimated that 500,000 Australian families are affected by autism.

National autism register to be established

By bobb |

Australian Associated Press

"We need to know the extent of autism in Australia so we can properly support people with ASD." Bill Shorten

A national register will be created to track the rising incidence of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in Australia, the federal government has announced.

Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services Bill Shorten told a regional autism conference in Sydney that a register would help improve government support services.

Autism among USA health issues

By bobb |

Health care in the USA is a major topic of discussion. Recent reports show autism is in the discussion (other than diagnosis, the health care sector in Australia largely ignores autism spectrum disorders).

According to media reports ...

One ad by an autism awareness group urges viewers to tell Congress that any plan that does not prevent autism insurance discrimination “is unacceptable.”

The media reports are:

Disabled Students Are Spanked More

By bobb |

More than 200,000 schoolchildren are paddled, spanked or subjected to other physical punishment each year, and disabled students get a disproportionate share of the treatment, according to a new study.

...

Among the cases cited in the report was that of a 6-year-old, first-grade boy with autism, who was paddled at his Mississippi elementary school. An assistant principal who the report described as weighing 300 pounds “picked up an inch-thick paddle and paddled him” on the buttocks, the report said.

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