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Church Access for Persons with Disabilities
Catholic Teachings, Practical Suggestions and Resources |
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This was in response to a page of definitions posted on this website
"I share your hesitation about definitions....
The families using the site know the definitions too well. And the general public using the site should focus on "People" not the disability. But if you have decided to include them, I am sure you are aware that the definitions change as a person enters the adult world. Most of the info you have is school/children based. In the adult world, the labels are "mental retardation", "developmental disability", "disabled" (Social Security definition) etc...
I share this not so much because I think you should add more definitions to this page. But because I sense much of the feedback you are getting is from younger families who have not entered the adult disability world. These families are very different in their approach to having a person with a disability in the family than the generation before them. (I will refrain from digressing on that thought) We are seeing a growing sense of frustration and dissatisfaction among these families as their sons and daughters leave the school system and find the adult system does not provide the same level of support. There are a significant number of children who are "special" in the school system who are not eligible for any disability system support as adults because the "definition" changes. Or in layman terms, after they graduate they are suddenly not "disabled" any more.
Perhaps the definition page could serve to help people understand that labels are created to categorize people for specific service provision and they change from one system to the next. Examples..
the medical world has a set of definitions, better known as diagnosis, to help doctors identify the prescribed course of treatment and have the treatment covered by health insurance;
the school world has a set of definitions to identify groups of children for extra educational funding and eligibility for modified educational expectations; the social service world has definitions to identify eligibility for specific programs and the attached funding (Social Security Disability payments, Medicaid health care and long term care, BVR , MR/DD bds, ADAMHS Bds, ADA for work modifications, etc...)
And of course this could reinforce why we don't use labels to "know" people. They are just a vehicle to funding not a description of the person at all."
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Last Update to this page was March 03, 2008
Copyright © 2006 Dennis C. McNulty