SOCIAL SERVICES: Peering into the Future in Seattle
On November 19, Social Services Director Jerome Kleckley ventured to Seattle to attend a training course offered by the Amputee Coalition of America to learn about their National Peer Network. United Spinal Association seeks to establish a “pilot” peer support program soon, according to Kleckley, but our organization knows it is important that members who wish to provide peer support in their community be trained appropriately.
What is peer support? Many of our readers may have benefited from peer support without realizing it. Basically, it is the provision of informational and emotional support, often via a meeting at a rehabilitation center, to newly injured/diagnosed individuals. Further, as Kleckley emphasized, peer support is not counseling, but rather the informal sharing of coping skills and important local resources by an experienced person with spinal cord disability, so that a newly injured/diagnosed individual might adjust more successfully.
Kleckley described his Seattle training mission enthusiastically: he returned with materials that United Spinal can replicate in order to train members to conduct peer support visits as well as to document and evaluate the outcomes of these visits.
MEMBERSHIP & OUTREACH: Educating Realtors in San Francisco
In late October, United Spinal’s Membership Director Marlene Perkins presented a 90-minute workshop titled “Accommodating Clients with Disabilities” at a National Association of Realtors conference in San Francisco, California. The opportunity to present at this event, which attracted some 24,000 real estate professionals primarily from North America, is competitive, and United Spinal’s presentation was the only disability-related topic selected to be on the conference agenda.
During her workshop, Perkins first focused her audience on the ADA requirement that a real estate office is a place of public accommodation which the law requires to be made accessible to individuals with disabilities, as well as the federal Fair Housing Amendments Act disability provisions that cover most
aspects of real estate transactions and accessible design in new multi-family housing construction. Perkins then offered basic “disability etiquette” ideas to her workshop group, and she concluded her remarks with information about helpful local resources, such as independent living centers, that realtors can turn to when questions/issues arise. Perkins reports that her audience was a lively group and that they evaluated her session as an important and effective discussion.
PUBLIC POLICY: Stars of SCI Science Shine in Boston
United Spinal Association was one of seven outside sponsors of a daylong conference hosted on November 19, 2005 the New England Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center at Boston Medical Center concerning the science, the politics, and the issues in spinal cord injury (SCI) research. Representing us at this event, which was aimed primarily toward consumers, family members, and caregivers, was Public Policy’s Dan Anderson. A look at the day’s agenda was a bit like reading a “who’s who” list in spinal cord research, and Anderson concurred, characterizing the proceedings as “excellent, probably the best SCI research conference I’ve attended.”
Among the distinguished presenters were Wise Young, MD, PhD of Rutgers University’s Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience; Congressman James Langevin (D-RI), himself an SCI wheelchair user; and, Susan Harkema, PhD, of the University of Louisville’s Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center.
Dr. Young talked about the three “generations” of functional recovery, the first of which began a little more than 15 years ago with pharmaceutical treatments administered very soon after initial injury to promote return of movement. A second generation is in its early stages now and it involves clinical trials of such approaches as cell transplantation, and a third generation lies hopefully in the near future and it will feature, according to Dr. Young, a combination of surgical, pharmaceutical and rehabilitative measures. Congressman Langevin discussed the role of the federal government in the stem cell issue, while Dr. Harkema described the positive outcomes achieved thus far using body weight-supported treadmill training following SCI.
