[Ludi]

Be sure you do lots of research before using herbs to treat illness. Talk to your docs about it, if you want to use herbs, because they may interfere with your current meds. It's important to remember that just because something is a plant, doesn't mean it is entirely safe or with no side effects.

Other herbal books I like:

"Home Herbal" by Penelope Ody
"The Medicinal Garden" by Anne McIntyre
"The Complete Woman's Herbal" by Ann McIntyre

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'B')e sure you do lots of research before using herbs to treat illness. Talk to your docs about it, if you want to use herbs, because they may interfere with your current meds. It's important to remember that just because something is a plant, doesn't mean it is entirely safe or with no side effects.

Other herbal books I like:

"Home Herbal" by Penelope Ody
"The Medicinal Garden" by Anne McIntyre
"The Complete Woman's Herbal" by Ann McIntyre

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', '
')Kinda like em pills, huh.

[n6xf]

Well, the VA is mad at me and has stopped seeing me because I didn't take their pills. I hate taking pills because as I was growing up, My mother was addicted to perscription medicine. She had to retire early from teaching because of it. When I was diagnoised with type II diabetis, I refused to take their medicine, but I monitored my sugar everyday. I droped 60 pounds, and no more diabites. Or, I could still be taking their pills for the past 10 years. So, I sure won't jump into anything fast. Mainly I would like to treat prostate and joints. At 63, both are in need of watching. I used to smoke pot years ago, but had to give it up for work and to preserve my commercial fcc ticket and cdl drivers license. Now, I have to be in a testing program just to have my captains license (OUPV) and I'm not even doing any charters. Next it is a clearance from homeland security by next April to have any coast guard license, and of course, more fees. Well, I'm old, so I can grumble a bit. Thanks again Ludi for the cautions. I have heard some horror stories about folks using natural medicines with out the knowledge and and guidence. Did you get a chance to take a look at the disabled forum I set up as a tryout? I don't really expect it to come to anything, and it's free, but it would be intresting.

[bratticus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Danbury-based Praxair lays off disabled Stamford man: Disabled workers hit hard in tough job market
The Stamford Advocate - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
via COMTEX, Jan 18, 2009

Michael Molgano, a Stamford man paralyzed in a 1975 diving accident, did the same work as his able-bodied co-workers at Danbury-based Praxair Inc. and its predecessor company since 1982.

... skip ... Molgano said an incoming call from his supervisor on Nov. 11 cut short a phone conversation he was having with a Praxair client in Chicago. "She said, 'I have really bad news. You're gone. Today is your last day and your (computer) access will be removed,' " Molgano said.

"I hung up the phone and just sat there, thinking about what happened," said Molgano, who represents Stamford's 15th District on the Board of Representatives. "I was just devastated for that day. I had been doing this same thing for 26 years and they just pulled the plug -- like that."

... skip ... It's getting tougher in Connecticut, too, said Brenda Moore, director of the state Department of Social Services Bureau of Rehabilitation Services.

... skip ... Employment levels of spinal cord injured and other people with disabilities dropped in the 1990s when the economy prospered, said Eric Larson, the association's executive director. ... snip ...

[vision-master]

The ADA was formed to protect Employers.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')img]http://i.usatoday.net/news/_photos/2010/08/05/blanebeckwithx.jpg[/img]
Blane Beckwith wants to keep living at home with his mother and younger brother in Berkeley, Calif.
For that to happen, Beckwith, 54, who has spinal muscular atrophy and uses a wheelchair, relies on an aide paid by the state to get him in and out of bed, bathe him, feed him, dress him and do everything he can't do for himself.

Now that kind of help is in jeopardy. California, facing a $19.1 billion budget gap, is considering a reduction in funding that pays for home care aides for the disabled. It already cut funds last year.

Beckwith worries that under the new, tighter rules, he might no longer qualify for his aide and other assistance and that he'll end up in a nursing home.

"I'd rather be dead," he says. "Twenty years after the Americans With Disabilities Act was signed, things are getting worse for us. States want to save money by cutting services to the most vulnerable people. That's us, the disabled."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-08-06-ada06_ST_N.htm

[MarkJ]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')ow, though, gains made under the ADA are running into recession-battered state budgets. At least 17 states have cut into funding for assistance to the disabled since 2009 or are planning to do it this year, says Phil Oliff, a policy analyst with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which analyzes the effect of public spending on low-income people. The cuts include cash, home nursing services and grants to agencies that help the disabled live independently.

Under the ADA and a 1999 Supreme Court decision upholding it, the disabled have a right to live in their communities. States, within their resources, must provide community-based services that make it possible.

That means states are up against opposing mandates: Under the ADA, the court said, states must provide care that best integrates a person into the community — as long as the states can pay for it. However, Medicaid rules require them to pay for nursing home care, but not home care, for people with disabilities.

"I think every state wants to provide more community-based care, but they just can't afford it," says Ann Kohler, executive director of the National Association of State Medicaid Directors, which manages services to the disabled.

[SeaGypsy]

Maybe they should take a leaf from the Aussie book. I work in the care industry here in Australia, currently in quadraplegia care. What is happening here is that agencies are slowly being taken out of the picture. I am currently working for an agent who makes $1 an hour for setting up my work roster. The previous 5 agencies I worked for averaged $5 an hour or about 20% of what the government pays. These big agencies have run the show for a very long time and they will not just lay down and die.
What the guv is doing little by little is making jobs available directly between the carer and the client, where the client is sent a bunch of candidates and chooses for themself who to employ. The carer and client record attendance and services which are then paid directly to the carer, removing the need for an agent.
They have begun this system not because they are broke, but because unemployment is so low here (3% in my state and 5% nationally) that after the agency fee the wage is not enough to attract decent candidates.
The situation in the US, where the cart is well and truly in front of the horse, results in inept care.
Reduce the beaurocracy and increase quality of care.

[gollum]

Hey, as long as GoldmanSacs and CitiBank are ok who cares, that band plays on I guess. How sad.

[Pretorian]

I have close and distant relatives, classmates, friends, acquaintances that work in all levels of government in at least 3 countries. When it comes to budget cuts, they pick most innocent, most heart- crushing -tear dropping for the average yokel field like teachers, firefighters, disabled , so when the cut is actually supposed to be made public uproar is so loud that nothing gets cut anyway. This is exactly the reason they pick them for cuts.

[mlit]

Then one side of the politicians face can say I tried to cut spending, while the other says I protected your programs