We’re counting down to July 26 – the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) – with the top anniversary articles and blogs. Plus last week’s White House Conference on Aging; the need for childhood, adolescent access to mental health treatment; rise of young people among nursing home population; and recent reports on the value of family caregivers, rankings of states by support of people with disabilities, and the top concerns of older Americans.
- “This week many are celebrating the unprecedented improvements that the [ADA] has brought to the quality of life for millions of people with disabilities in the 25 years since it was signed into law… but the work of guaranteeing access to the American dream is far from over,” Carol Glazer, National Organization on Disability (c/o The Huffington Post).
- “I do share my story sometimes and say, ‘This is how far we’ve come,’ ” [Elizabeth Sammons] said. “And this is how far we can go,” shares The Columbus Dispatch.
- Ten things to know about the ADA, per Disability.gov’s Disability Connection Newsletter.
- U.S. News and World Report shares the administration’s announced goals from the White House Conference on Aging: finding ways to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease by 2025, developing a curriculum that health care workers can use to care for patients with dementia, and improving care and services provided to older in nursing homes.
- Young people ages 31 to 64 now comprise more than 14 percent of the nursing home population – a rate that’s gone up from 10 percent just 10 years ago, reports NPR.
- Family caregivers provided 37 billion hours of care in 2013, worth a whopping $470 billion – that’s more than the combined annual sales of Apple, HP, IBM and Microsoft in the same period, according to the AARP Public Policy Institute’s “Valuing the Invaluable: 2015 Update.”
- United Cerebral Palsy’s 2015 Case for Inclusion report ranks all 50 states and D.C. on how well they serve and support people with disabilities, finding that all states have room for improvement.
- Loss of independence and financial pressures are top concerns for older Americans, according to the 2015 United States of Aging survey. Other concerns: costs and difficulty understanding insurance, paying monthly expenses, working beyond retirement age, and housing costs.
- Children and teenagers with a mental health condition had six times higher odds of having health, legal, financial and social problems as adults, according to a study in JAMA Psychiatry. More: NPR advises on the importance of childhood and adolescence access to treatment and prevention.
Get your bookmarks ready! This week the Declarations blog will feature Lex Frieden, convener of the National Advisory Board and architect of the ADA, on the law’s 25th anniversary.
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