Kids Brain Health Foundation

Important read via GOOD: Sticks and stones can break bones & words can harm beyond hurt feelings. Using derogatory terms like sped and the r-word to ridicule ...others suggests having a disability is a reason to be mockedit isn’t: https://www.good.is/articles/is-special-needs-the-new-r-word #Ability #Inclusion #EmpoweredKids

Are you a person with neurodevelopmental disabilities under 30 years of age or a caregiver? Please complete this online survey on your experience accessing the Disability Tax Credit and other government services/benefits! https://is.gd/disabilitysupportsstudy

Today is International #DayofFamilies! We’re celebrating with a look at how our researchers are listening to and learning from parents raising children with neurodevelopmental disabilities. Parents are the experts they know their child best, says Dr. Emily Gardiner, KBHN Post Doctoral Fellow. Read about her study: http://bit.ly/2D6DC37

Therapy for a child with a disability can be crucial. Today, "enough kids to fill a small town are languishing on a waiting list in the wider London region for ...critical therapy they need in school, a backlog the area’s largest school board fears will leave many behind." Learn more about the service backlog for London, Ontario kids: http://ow.ly/r1OJ50u1Vvt.

Today is Children and Youth in Care Day - KBHN salutes their strength and resiliency, and the compassion and commitment of Dr. Chaya Kulkarni, whose research focuses on improving outcomes for the youngest kids in #fostercare: http://bit.ly/2OrQp3U #CARE4CARE Infant Mental Health Promotion (IMHP)

The long but forgotten history of clothing design for disabled users is being brought to light in an exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Curated by Nathalie Wright, daughter of our board member Donna Thomson, "Functional Fashions" introduces the largest collaborative clothing line for disabled persons in American history. Ms Wright's excellent blog (linked below) gives an overview of the stories behind the exhibit, which runs through early 2020.

What is the microbiome? Why is it relevant to #FASD? Watch KBHN Investigator Dr. Joanne Weinberg, and alumna trainee Dr. Tamara Bodnar present on how prenatal alcohol exposure affects the "vast ecosystem of organisms that lives in our digestive system - that might be as complex and influential as our genes.." This plenary is one of six videos from the 2019 International FASD Conference earlier now posted here: https://interprofessional.ubc.ca//conference-presentations/

That’s an acceptable track record?

I’m hanging by a thread. I’m burning out. I don’t know how much longer I can do this. As their adult children who have complex needs remain on a wait list for supportive housing, some Ontario parents are left with few viable options.

It's okay to have a disability and be an 'ordinary' person. "There is such a pressure on people with chronic health conditions and disabilities to be inspiring and extraordinary. Sometimes just getting out of bed in the morning is an extraordinary achievement."

A horribly sad story based on ridiculous arbitrary cut-offs between children's and adult services that leave this young autistic man without care after his mother and then grandmother died.