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Disabled students pursue neglect claims

By bobb |

Miki Perkins
January 28, 2009

THE State Government and the Catholic Education Office are being dragged through the courts in at least 18 separate cases by disabled students who claim they have been neglected at school and lag far behind their peers.

At least 17 students, through their parents, are battling the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development or the Catholic Education Office in jurisdictions including the Federal Court, the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Wakefield study that linked autism with MMR vaccine was fraud: British Medical Journal

By bobb |

A 1998 STUDY that unleashed a major health scare by linking childhood autism to a triple vaccine was "an elaborate fraud", the British Medical Journal has charged.

Blamed for a disastrous boycott of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine in Britain, the study was retracted by The Lancet last year and its senior author disgraced, after the country's longest-running hearing, for conflict of interest and unethical treatment of patients.

NZ court victory for caregiver parents

By convenor |

The New Zealand High Court has knocked back the Ministry of Health, ruling in favour of nine parents of disabled adults, saying they are eligible for financial support from the ministry.

A group of nine parents of disabled adult children took the Government to the Human Rights Tribunal last year, arguing that it was unfair the Ministry paid carers only if they were not related to the patient.

The tribunal found the ministry had discriminated against the parents, but the ministry appealed the decision to the High Court.

Prestigious school forced to apologise to autistic girl's family

By bobb |

Lee-Maree Gallo
December 21, 2010

One of Perth's most prestigious private girls' school has admitted discriminating against an autistic girl after an emotional two-year legal battle.

Methodist Ladies College was forced to admit it failed to provide appropriate educational assistance to the girl after a settlement reached in the Federal Magistrate's Court.

Mandy and Andrew Masons' six-year-old daughter was diagnosed with severe autism at the age of two.

Five points of contention

By Anonymous (not verified) |

16th Nov 2010

Fundamental changes are taking place in the area of mental health. Amanda Sheppeard looks at the top five controversies identified by leaders in the field. Amanda Sheppeard all articles by this author

THE EXPERTS

Professor Ian Hickie

Executive director of the Brain and Mind Research Institute, professor of psychiatry at the University of Sydney, and an NHMRC Australian Medical Research Fellow.

Professor Gordon Parker

Executive director of the Black Dog Institute, research director of the Mood Disorders Unit, and Scientia Professor at the University of NSW.

Terrace man sells his skin

By bobb |

BY ALISON BRANLEY

Forget bus stop seats, a Raymond Terrace man is selling advertising space on his skin in an effort to raise $1 million.

Tim Christian, 26, said every square centimetre of his body was up for grabs by businesses looking to get their brand permanently tattooed on his walking billboard.

The father-of-three is doing it to raise money to improve Hunter autism services after struggling to get help for his four-year-old son, Connor.

Two year anniversary of Helping Children with Autism package

By bobb |

Jan McLucas, Jenny Macklin posted Wednesday, 27 October 2010

Today marks the two year anniversary of the Australian Government’s $190 million Helping Children with Autism package, an initiative aimed at providing early intervention services to children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.

In the two years since its introduction, more than 10,000 Australian children aged up to six years old have accessed more than 220,000 early intervention services through the Government’s autism package.

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