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Facebook and Twitter will be awfully quiet come Nov. 1 if a slew of autism advocacy groups have their way. Advocates around the globe are pushing for a one day “communication shutdown” in an effort to create awareness and raise funds for autism organizations in more than 40 countries.

Families with mentally ill children face many extra hurdles. Costs and access to care are just part of the challenges. Despite significant scientific progress in understanding and treating mental illnesses over the past 20 years, many people still blame parents for children’s illnesses. Stigma is a heavy burden for a family with a child who is ill with a brain disorder. Treatment systems still tend to leave parents out of the process.

About 300 people from across the state are expected to attend the Montana State Conference on Mental Illness on Oct. 27-29 in Billings. The theme of the conference at the Crowne Plaza Hotel is “Recovery and Reform.” The conference will examine mental illness and recovery in a manner designed to help consumers, families, providers and advocates.

The Wellstone Fellowship for Social Justice is designed to foster the advancement of social justice through participation in health care advocacy work that focuses on the unique challenges facing many low-income and minority communities. Through this fellowship, Families USA hopes to expand the pool of talented social justice advocates from underrepresented economic, racial, and ethnic minority groups, including from the American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian American, Black/African American, Latino, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. The Wellstone Fellow plays an integral role in the work of Families USA’s Field and Minority Health Initiatives Departments.

Congress passed a bill on Tuesday night that would make the Internet and mobile phones more accessible to people with disabilities. The legislation will go to President Obama next week to sign into law. Advocates for the blind and deaf say the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act would ensure that Web sites and makers of consumer electronics consider the vision- and hearing-impaired, who have been left behind as more communications tools move to the Web.

The trio of young women clasped their hands, bowed their heads and prayed before taking center stage as one of the closing acts of the three-day Montana State Conference on Mental Illness in Billings. One is a 17-year-old flutist in the Helena High School Band and member of the National Honor Society. One is a 16-year-old singer, dancer and cheerleader. One is a 17-year-old rock climber and No. 1 doubles varsity tennis player. And, each has a mental illness.

Many parents have questions about what to do when they are presented with an IEP that is not appropriate for their child. You should advise the IEP team that you don’t think the IEP is appropriate, that it does not provide your child with enough help or the right kind of help. You should use facts to support your position (i.e., facts from an evaluation of your child from a private sector evaluator, graphs of your child's test scores).

Federal law requires day care centers to provide reasonable accommodations for children with disabilities, but parents and advocates say finding care can be near impossible in some parts of the country.

Good records are essential to effective advocacy!

The Americans with Disabilities Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 in Education presented by Cheryl A. Theis (MA), Director of the Foster Youth with Disabilities in Transition (FYDT) and Clearinghouse and Education Advocate for the Parent Training Information Center Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF)

As the U.S. Census gears up for its 2010 count, advocates are working to ensure that people with disabilities have the knowledge and resources to take part. Traditionally, Americans with disabilities are an underrepresented group in the national count that’s conducted once every ten years. Reasons vary, but with high unemployment among this group and many living in institutions or restricted transportation-wise, just knowing about the census can be a hurdle.

Earlier this week,  there was an article in The Boston Globe about sensory processing disorder. It stated that a group of researchers, families, and occupational therapists is aggressively lobbying to get sensory processing disorder included in the next Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is currently being drafted.

Roughly one in ten children struggle with dyslexia, a condition that affects young learners' ability to read and spell. These six books, aimed at parents of dyslexic children, cover a gamut of topics, from advice on navigating the public school system to tips for coping and becoming an effective advocate for your kid.

TRENTON - Not everyone gets a state senator to write their excuse for missing school. But Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic, was happy to accommodate Samantha Ravelli, of Ocean City, and her sister, Roseann, on Thursday when the two missed school to attend a Senate session during which Van Drew's bill to form a statewide Reading Disabilities Task Force was unanimously approved.

When: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 from 10:00am-11:30am Mountain Presented by: Kayla A. Bower, Esq., and Joy J. Turner, Esq. Cost: $50.00 (includes phone and Web access to 90-minute live event plus unlimited access to archived event and related materials) About the webinar: This presentation will provide an understanding of the many dimensions to ethics in special education advocacy and its key components in both the approach to substantive issues and the methods by which an advocate achieves an outcome.

Washington, DC (April 2, 2010) – Autism Speaks, the nation’s largest autism science and advocacy organization, today joined with grassroots advocates to celebrate the passage of three more state autism insurance reform bills this week in Iowa, Kansas, and Kentucky. The effort to end autism insurance discrimination nationwide has gained new momentum with these recent victories, combined with President Obama’s enactment this week of the Health Care Education and Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010, which contains a provision including behavioral health treatment as part of the essential benefits package required in certain health plans.

In many states, determining whether or not an adult with a disability qualifies for significant assistance comes down to one factor: IQ score. Trouble is that IQ and ability don’t always match up. The conundrum is particularly pronounced among individuals with autism and mental illness who often have normal intellectual intelligence, but have significant social or emotional needs that prohibit them from living independently, advocates say.

Public health scientists and clinicians tout vaccines as one of the greatest achievements of modern medicine. But for many ordinary Americans vaccines have become controversial. Young parents are concerned at the sheer number of shots--some 26 inoculations for 14 different diseases by age 6--and follow alternative vaccination schedules advocated by gurus like Dr. Robert Sears. Other parents go further. In communities like Ashland, Oregon, up to one-third of parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kids at all. And some advocacy groups, like Generation Rescue, argue that vaccines are no longer a public health miracle but a scourge; they view vaccines as responsible for alarming rises in certain disorders, including ADHD and autism.