Wordless Wednesday: Smiles 4 a Day

Danceability : tickets for tonight's concert

Danceability Australia has generously made eight free tickets to their concert TONIGHT - Wednesday 16th November - available to DS NSW members.

You need to be able to get to the Science Theatre at the University of NSW, Kensington for a 7 pm sharp start. Tickets will go to the first callers.

Call Lucy on 0418 608 033 and collect tickets at the venue tonight.

Will be a great night.

Playability: Saturday 3rd December, Five Dock

A free family celebration for International Day of People with Disabilities 

Saturday 3rd December 2011

10.00 am to 3.00 pm

Livvi's Place, Timbrell Park, Five Dock

www.touchedbyolivia.com.au

Some steps up the hill: health advocacy for Australians with intellectual disabiity

From NSW Council on Intellectual Disability:
Some steps up the hill, is an update on our advocacy and progress on the health of people with intellectual disability over the last year, prepared by Jim Simpson (NSW CID) and Nick Lennox (Australian Association of Developmental Disability Medicine).  Highlights include:

·       “Health and Wellbeing” is one of the six policy areas in the National Disability Strategy that was adopted by the Council of Australian Governments in February 2011. The Strategy includes a range of agreed national strategies for action. Since then, the Queensland and Western Australian Governments have released new disability policy documents with a major focus on improved health care.

·       We released our position paper on mental health and people with intellectual disability and our position was endorsed by numerous leading individuals and groups in the mental health sector.

·      The NSW Government has funded three new intellectual disability health teams and established an Intellectual Disability Health Network in its Agency for Clinical Innovation.

We have also had major areas of frustration. For example, despite its considerable action on mental health, the Commonwealth is yet to squarely address the well established barriers to mental health care for people who have both an intellectual disability and a mental illness.

However, there is now a much higher awareness in government and the health sector of the health inequalities experienced by people with intellectual disability and significant action to start to address those inequalities.

Many of you have supported our advocacy by endorsing our position statements and responding to our requests to write to politicians on key issues. And many of you have pursued your own advocacy and direct work towards better health care for people with intellectual disability. All of this action has helped to show governments and the health sector that the health of people with intellectual disability is an issue of major community concern.

We hope you find Some steps up the hill a useful update. It and other information about our health advocacy are available here.

'Doing my job is awesome' - employee of the year

This video allows a young San Franciso man, Jackson Soderquist Steel, and his co-workers to speak eloquently about his job as a docent at a science museum, and how he prepared to do it so well that he recently won a prestigious Employee of the Year award:



As a teenager with Down Syndrome, Jackson struggled in school. At 14, he first started working with JVS, taking our skill-building courses as part of his school day. Over the next five years, JVS coached him through his first jobs. Last year, JVS placed Jackson as an Explainer at the Exploratorium. Jackson has thrived at his job, learning quickly how to build his strengths, overcome his challenges, and communicate his needs to his supervisors. He loves his work and takes pride in setting a positive example to other youth with disabilities who visit the museum.

Jewish Vocational Services, Bay Area

World Down Syndrome Day adopted by UN

The international petition recently circulated by Down Syndrome International has been successful in convincing the United Nations to officially recognise World Down Syndrome Day (21st March) from 2012.

The petition collected well over 10,000 signatures from 87 nations.  Brazil sponsored the vote at the UN 'third committee', that was adopted by consensus yesterday in New York, and will be confirmed in the UN General Assembly in December.

Library Thursday: School Link Newsletter

The November 2011 edition of The Children’s Hospital at Westmead’s School-Link newsletter on mental health and intellectual disability in children and adolescents is now available online at www.schoollink.chw.edu.au 

Highlights include:

•  How much do we value families and how much does it impact on children with intellectual disability? by Associate Professor David Dossetor (CHW)

•  Supporting individuals with an intellectual disability through grief, loss and bereavement by Helen Goltzoff (ADHC)

•  The medicine cabinet: sleep glorious sleep by Judith Longworth (CHW)

•  Refugee, mental health, and intellectual disability by Gemma Jenkins (DEC)

•  Details on new book release: Mental health in children and adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities by Dossetor, White and Whatson (2011).

New research on heart defects in babies with Down syndrome

Around half of all babies with Down syndrome are also born with a congenital heart defect (commonly called a 'hole in the heart') of some kind.  A University of California San Diego/University of Utah research study is helping to solve the genetic puzzle that results in some of the heart conditions that occur so commonly in our children.

• Press release from UCSD
• The research paper is published online by PLoS Genetics

Disabled migrants still not welcome

Discussion of Australia's immigration treatment of people with disabilities, and how little has actually changed since the Enabling Australia report was released last year: ABC Radio National, National Interest, Friday 4th November 2011

Don't DIS my ABILITY: upfront and behind the scenes

Great use of video to promote Don't DIS my ABILITY 2011

First Flight Crew: street performances 12th and 19th

The First Flight Crew are back & are taking it to the streets!

See them bust out across central Sydney to all original music with Aussie B-Boy Morganics.

Sat Nov 12th - three performances near Central station from 11am. First stop Belmore Park, meeting at the rotunda.

Sat Nov 19th - three performances around Town Hall from11am. First stop Town Hall steps.

Watch them as they take off!

NSW Carers Awards: congratulations Carmel Flavell

The 2011 NSW Carers Awards were announced during the week shared by Down Syndrome Awareness and Carers in late October.

Among the award winners was Carmel Flavell, named as Ambassador, Caring Community Member

The Minister's citation reads:

A single mother with four children, Carmel has had to give extra care to her son who has Down syndrome and autism.
The experience has made Carmel an inspiring speaker. She gives regular addresses at Carer Safari and other forums and conferences.  She is also a Carers NSW representative and works as a special needs caseworker providing case management for families with children with disabilities in Camden and Wollondilly.

Carmel always makes sure we know about events coming up in her area, as well as playing a very active role in supporting other families. Congratulations on your award, Carmel.

Down Syndrome NSW e-Update - November 2011 issue now online

The November 2011 issue of the Down Syndrome NSW e-Update is now available online.

 The e-Update is a listing of events occurring over the next few weeks, and new information, largely collected from this blog, to provide a timely reminder for the next month or so.

Our next quarterly publication date is 1st December 2011 when we will release:

• Voice, December 2011 (the issue's theme is 'personal passions') - our quarterly journal published in collaboration with Down syndrome Victoria
  
• Down Syndrome NSW News and Update, Summer 2011 - 2012 - a quarterly round up of local NSW and Down Syndrome NSW news and events

Down Syndrome NSW members will receive their copies in the mail early in December.

Two videos - one concept

Two very nice recent videos show men with Down syndrome going about their daily lives with the support they need to live the lives they want:

The spirit behind The Creative Spirit (11 mins 12 sec) is designed to encourage creative organisations and businesses to employ people with disabilities - as Lloyd is.

Leigh's personal story (5 mins 24 sec) features a a very engaging spokesman for House With No Steps, who is a participant in the Independent Living Support Initiative, a program being developed by Down Syndrome NSW  in conjunction with the NSW Government and service providers.

Wordless Wednesday

Stronger siblings - a new DVD for parents and professionals

Stronger Siblings, developed by Siblings Australia and presented by Andrew Daddo, will be launched in Adelaide tomorrow, November 3rd.
The is designed to DVD assist parents, and those who work with families, to understand the experience of brothers and sisters of a child with disability and how to support them. Parents and siblings share their stories and, together with professionals, explore a number of issues.
It is an ideal resource for organisations to use with groups of parents, especially given the DVD includes notes to facilitate further discussion.
An order form is available here.

A short excerpt of the DVD on the Siblings Australia website shortly.

Don't DIS myABILITY 2011 launch

Congratulations to the five people with Down syndrome who are playing a prominent role in the Don't DIS myABILITY campaign for International Day of People with Disability across NSW this year.

The campaign was launched today with the announcement of the 2011 Ambassadors, including Saxon Graham, Melissa Eustace, Gerard O'Dwyer and Tracie Sammut.  Audrey O'Connor is the face of the campaign as the cover model for the annual magazine, Made You Look.

Information about all of the ambassadors, and locations of the many outlets distributing print copies of the magazine in metropolitan and regional NSW, and events is on the Don't DIS myABILITY website.

Audrey's photo is also on the NSW Ageing, Disability and Home Care home page banner.

Down Syndrome Down Under Swimming Organisation - first national meet

Congratulations to Down Syndrome Down Under Swimming Organisation on the success of the first Australian national swim meet for people with Down syndrome held in Noosa, Qld in September.  DSDUSO reports that 57 swimmers from Australia and New Zealand competed, and established 10 new World Records.

Twelve swimmers from NSW are listed among the competitors - congratulations to:
Mitchell Carlin, Gabrielle Clarke, Allison Gillis, Daniel Rumsey, Brendan Foley, Ashley Emerson, Lucy Dumitrescu, James Lawrence, Timothy Walsh, Katrina Brennan, Carley Chapman, and Dominic Paris.

Further information and individual results are on the DSDUSO website, as is information about the next International Championship, scheduled to take place in Italy in November 2012.

Access All Areas Film Festival 2011 - 2012

Access All Areas Film Festival 2011 presents a program of accessible Australian films across the country. 15 new and acclaimed home-grown short films will be screened, as well as family film RED DOG, which is taking Australia by storm.

Cinema Tour: 

• Parramatta Riverside Theatres 1st December 2011  
• Dendy Opera Quays 2nd December 2011

Community Tour:

• Erina
• North parramatta
• Wollongong
• Liverpool

The Schools Tour:
The Access All Areas schools tour is a program of new Australian short films designed to raise awareness about issues of ability and access in the classroom. The program is an opportunity to showcase access services such as captions and audio description, and features and education pack. Access All Areas School screenings are held  around the country between November 2011 and March 2012.

All program and venue details:  Access All Areas 2011 - 2012

Research project: Disability & Ability: How Young People with Impairments make the Transition to Adulthood

The 'Disability & Ability: How Young People with Impairments make the Transition to Adulthood' research project has been funded for three years by the Australian Research Council (ARC) to the University of Sydney and Deakin University. 

Researchers are seeking to recruit young people with disability aged 19 - 26yrs to be interviewed yearly for 3yrs. Interviews will take a life history approach and explore a range of topics - more detail is available from the project outline, and the participant brochure.

Contact: Gabrielle Hindmarsh on (02) 9351 9510 or email transition.study@sydney.edu.au

This is a project of the Australian Family & Disability Studies Research Collaboration and has received approval from the University of Sydney Human Ethics Committee.