Regional news in
review
Test volunteers sought
Tamarack Habilitation Technologies,
Blaine, is recruiting up to 50 people who use standard skin protection
seat cushions in their wheelchair for a market test of our new product
technology.
Tamarack has developed a new
product technology called “GlideWear”.
The first application using this technology is a wheelchair seat
cushion cover. The GlideWear cover can be used with any standard
cushion typically used for skin protection, and simply installs over
the original cushion cover. The GlideWear area on the seat cushion
cover provides a low-friction interface beneath the pelvis and hips – this
reduces shear forces where the skin is most vulnerable to breaking
down.
Tamarack will provide one
GlideWear seat cover based on the size of your cushion at no charge.
Participants will need to install it on the cushion using the directions
provided. A questionnaire will be provided to collect feedback, with
all questionnaires needing to be returned to Tamarack by October
1. Contact Tamarack by calling: 763-795-0057 or e-mail: info@tamarackhti.com
Source: Tamarack
MN Senior Federation could close in July
The Minnesota Senior
Federation, which has been a pioneer in many elder rights efforts,
is asking its membership to vote this month on dissolution. The
Federation’s
board voted in May to start the process of shutting down the organization.
Ballots were sent to members to ask for their vote. If approved by
the general membership, the Federation would shut down as soon as
July.
The Federation is about $100,000
in debt. The group has a proposed budget in 2009 of $1.1 million,
but is only on target to raise about $600,000 of that amount. The
organization has gone from having as many as 20 employees to one
full-time and three part-time staff.
A bad economy and loss of
sponsors, as well as declining membership, have hurt the Federation.
Membership has fallen from more than 40,000 to about 9,000. Fewer
seniors joining the group, as well as competition from AARP, have
been factors. “I
never expected to preside over our funeral but the money’s
just not there to continue,” said
Barbara Kaufman of Plymouth. She chairs the group’s board.
The
Federation had been a lobbying force at the state capitol for many
years. It began as collaboration among senior citizen clubs and activist,
working on a range of issues. It was considered a model for other
groups around the country. The Federation led the way in the charge
for tax and health care reforms, pension rights, and other issues.
It also pioneered bus trips to Canada, so that senior citizens could
buy cheaper medications. The group also sued the federal government
over a Medicare payment system that rewarded higher-cost states,
such as Florida, over Minnesota.
Senior News, a quarterly
newspaper, and a resource guide for seniors, are among the group’s
publications. It also has operated a health care information center
and Senior Partners Care, a program that helps about 21,700 low
and moderate-income people on Medicare get help from medical professionals
who agree not to charge co-pays. An announcement will be made soon
about the fate of Federation programs.
Source: Star Tribune, Minnesota Senior Federation
Northeastern Minnesota
group gets grant
Each year the Christopher & Dana
Reeve Foundation awards grants to non-profit organizations that
provide services to individuals living with paralysis. The foundation
has announced that the ACCESSNORTH Center for Independent Living
of NE MN on behalf of the Minnesota Regions Assistive Technology
Collaborative as one of the 145 recipients, received $13,900.00.
MRATC will use the grant to help those living with paralysis become
active members in everyday life. MRATC will provide recreational
assistive technology for people with disabilities in Minnesota
to trial and lend in an effort to educate consumers, families and
professionals on the vast recreational opportunities available
with the utilization of assistive technology. Through a partnership
with the MN Regional Assistive Technology Networks, members of
the MN Regions Assistive Technology Collaborative (MRATC), we anticipate
this program will be able to serve the whole state of MN. Increased
awareness of untapped recreational opportunities for people with
disabilities is the goal of this program.
ACCESSNORTH
CILNM and MRATC express their appreciation to the Christopher & Dana
Reeves Foundation on behalf of Minnesotans with disabilities for
their support for the Recreational Assistive Technology Demonstration
and Lending Program. They continue to make dreams a reality. “Conceived
by the late Dana Reeve, the Quality of Life grants have helped non-profits
throughout the world improve the lives of people living with paralysis,” said
Peter T. Wilderotter, president and CEO of the Reeve Foundation. “The
program also provides assistance for family members and caregivers,
offering services such as counseling, support groups and educational
conferences.”
The grants are awarded in three categories; Actively
Achieving, Bridging Barriers and Caring and Coping. Each category
is designed to promote active and fulfilling lives for those living
with spinal cord injuries and other paralysis-causing conditions.
Individuals are encouraged to participate in sports, train for a
job, operate specially-adapted computer technology, modify homes
for wheelchair accessibility, access public transportation, participate
in the arts, proactively maintain their health, and much more.
Source: Reeve Foundation
myMDA social networking site launches
The Muscular Dystrophy Association
today introduced its first social networking Web site, myMDA, designed
to provide people with muscle diseases, their families, friends and
caregivers with a means to share experiences, exchange helpful tips
and resources, and cultivate new friendships. myMDA is located at
www.mda.org/mymda.
MDA has carefully tended its various informational Web sites since
the mid-1990s, and expects that expanding its online presence through
social networking will provide those it serves with a new way to
find support, information and encouragement.
“What tipped us in
favor of creating myMDA was the benefit to the people we serve,” MDA
President & CEO Gerald Weinberg said. “The fact
that people with muscular dystrophy and related diseases wanted to
communicate more frequently with each other, even beyond the 240
support groups we provide nationwide, really told us something.”
myMDA
features a number of social networking tools — such as
creating ‘friends,’ participating in message boards,
blogging and photo/video uploading — that allow an online community
to become connected and grow. MDA expects that the people it serves,
as well as families and friends, will be especially eager to connect
through myMDA so they can further share problems, solutions and life
experiences. Users must register to use the free service and be at
least 18 years old. “Having a muscle disease can be isolating,” Weinberg
noted, “and
families can be in a quandary about how to solve specific issues – where
to find a reliable resource, helpful tips for making daily care easier,
recipes that allow easy swallowing, how to cost-efficiently remodel
a home for easy access and suggestions for funding resources.
“Our
Web sites offer a lot of that kind of information,” Weinberg
said, “but we know that the families we serve will have even
more to share with each other, in very detailed ways. Plus, social
networking provides a great opportunity to make new friends among
an empathetic group of people. That’s why myMDA’s theme
is Strength in Community.”
The Association’s primary site
is www.mda.org, which gets about 8,000 visits per day, while information
specifically about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s
disease) is available at www.als-mda.org. MDA also has a Spanish-language
Web site, www.mdaenespanol.org.
MDA is a voluntary health
agency working to defeat muscular dystrophy and related diseases
through programs of worldwide research, comprehensive services,
advocacy, and far-reaching professional and public health education.
The Association’s
programs are funded almost entirely by individual private contributors.
Source: myMDA
Imaging, record-keeping provides jobs
Paging through maps and blueprints,
legal documents and titles, city meeting notes and agendas, crew
members with developmental disabilities at Midway Training Services
(MTS) in St. Paul prepare municipal documents for document imaging.
While this task of “busywork” is
frowned upon by some, the MTS crew has the opposite view, and readily
pages through box after box to transfer tens of thousands of pages
into the digital age of optical character recognition (OCR). Some
of the files for the city of Long Prairie go back to the 1950s, said
MTS Operations Manager Paul Klugow, who pulls from a team of about
a dozen people with disabilities for the imaging push. In the end,
the 27 cardboard bankers’ boxes numbering 75,000 to 80,000
pages in all are reduced to two DVDs. The days of searching through
past city council minutes are now over. Staff research hours are
reduced to minutes as electronic word searches pull up every file
that’s needed.
“We just wanted a faster way to retrieve
the documents, and to store that data in a much smaller area,” said
Long Prairie City Administrator and Clerk David Venekamp. With a
population of 3,040, Long Prairie has just three office employees.
Venekamp, who has been with the city for 30 years, approached the
city council to request the imaging project. “Over the
years, I’ve been through just about every box of records here,” explains
Venekamp, who is nearing retirement. The administrator said it made sense to
transfer the records now, rather than wait until a new leader comes in, someone
who would be less familiar with them. Space savings have been an added benefit.
Getting
those records into the right format with the correct file names is
very important. In working with people with disabilities, quality
is a key asset, says Klugow. “It’s
almost like you’re continually proving yourself,” he
said. “There
are a lot of quality checks they go into.” Quality and reliability
are two of the strong points noted when people with disabilities
tackle document imaging projects, and employer feedback have confirmed
this finding. A survey of employers conducted jointly for the Minnesota
Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities (DD Council),
the Department of Employment and Economic Development, the Minnesota
Department of Human Services and the Minnesota State Council on Disability
found that in general work situations, people with developmental
disabilities performed as well or better than other employees by
every standard, other than speed.
For MTS and its document
imaging crew, steady attention to detail has been a strong point.
Document preparation is key and is typically the most time consuming
aspect for these jobs. Files containing photographs, color documents
and larger sizes require extra steps. “That’s
the toughest part of the job,” said Klugow. “You don’t
know how long it’s going to take, from one box to another,
there can be a lot of different size items.”
For the city of
Falcon Heights project, the files contained information on nearly
every property in the city. Prior to the imaging effort, the records
were not backed up and were more difficult to search, said City Administrator
Justin Miller. The files tell much about the city’s 60-year
history, along with the locations of water and sewer lines, and when
building permits were pulled. City employees can now easily find
building permit information and property history.
Information for
the city’s 1,300 properties is listed in the
system by address. “We can do a lot of queries easier, looking
for certain types of permits. It’s easier to search that way
instead of going through by hand,” said Miller.
While Klugow
can depend upon his dedicated crew members, there’s
still the question of software and hardware choices, which are ever
changing. “We need to stay on top of the curve regarding new
software, services and capabilities, matching software to hardware,” he
said. Speed typically depends upon the amount of preparation work
needed and scanner speeds. The city jobs ran 600 to 700 pages an
hour, but imaging equipment can allow for speeds up to 4,500 pages
per hour.
The Minnesota Governor’s Council on Developmental
Disabilities, a unit of the Minnesota Department of Administration,
works to assure that all people with such disabilities and their
families receive the support they need to achieve greater independence
and productivity, and to be fully included in the community. The
Council began a statewide effort five years ago to promote employment
of individuals with developmental disabilities in document imaging
throughout the state. For further information, people may visit the
Council’s Web site, www.mncdd.org.
Source: Wallace Group
