Are YOU ready for hurricane season?

The 2012 Atlantic hurricane season starts tomorrow and Infinite Ways Network wants to know:  are you ready?   

Living in Dade County means having to live with the always-serious threat of dangerous tropical weather systems known as hurricanes during summer and autumn.   To help prepare our community any possible storms this season, IWN is planning to share various blog posts throughout the upcoming months to help raise hurricane awareness about the importance of preparedness.  

For our first hurricane awareness post this season, we suggest that readers have constructive, clear, specific discussions with your families about preparation for storms this season as well as plans for during and after storms.   If you have not already done, so please make sure to find out and document what your family will need in the event of a storm, whether or not you plan to evacuate (depending on where you live and the strength of a storm threatening our area, you may have to evacuate - please log onto this urlink and enter your home's zip codes to find out more), emergency contacts that live outside of Miami, et cetera. 

 

Please keep checking back here at the Infinite Ways Network Blog for updated tips and notes and more about being ready and aware this hurricane season.

'Treated in a Fair Way' - Jamaica Advocates for Citizens with Disabilities

Gov't to put measures in place for Disabled Community

by Athaliah Reynolds-Baker

Jamaica Information Service

31 May 2012

Minister of Labour and Social Security, Hon. Derrick Kellier, says the government will be working to implement specific policies and plans geared towards meeting the needs of the disabled community.

He said it is crucial that special attention is paid “to this very (important) group of persons, who over the years, have not received the full recognition and support that they really deserve”.

Mr. Kellier was addressing members of the disabled community at meeting on May 30 at the Ministry’s North Street offices in Kingston.

The meeting, held in collaboration with the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities, was held to update stakeholders on the various plans for the sector and to give them a change to raise concerns.

Mr. Kellier told the group that a series of public education campaigns will be undertaken to raise awareness about the needs of members of the disabled community as well as to increase support for their causes.

These efforts, he said, will help to break down stereotype and discrimination towards people with disabilities. “There is a lot stigma attached to persons with disabilities in some communities, because of a lack of understanding. I believe it is going to be incumbent on all of us…to ensure that awareness is developed, so that all Jamaicans can understand that persons with disabilities are not in any way different from the rest of us and are to be treated in a fair way,” he stated.

The Minister further noted that the government will be ensuring that its policies take into consideration the needs of the disabled community.

“We have to ensure that the society becomes a ‘disability friendly’ environment. We need to look at things like building construction. When we are constructing buildings these days, we have to make sure that they are done in a ‘disability friendly’ way (and) that places like sidewalks are accessible,” he said.

“I think within this our 50th year of Independence it is a good time to send a signal to the community that the government is serious about (catering to its members),” he added.

In his remarks, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Alvin McIntosh, said that the Ministry “stands ready” to provide support to the community. “We recognise that there are some special talents in the community that must be utilised and must be harnessed,” he said.

He said that as the government continues to roll out activities under the Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP), there will be a place for members of the disabled community.

Newly appointed Chairman, National Advisory Board on Disabilities, Denworth Finnikin, noted that improving opportunities for education and training must be a key part of government’s plans to empower the community.

Mr. Finnikin said he is working to ensure that every institution employs at least one qualified person with disability. “Already, we have identified some funding to look at software for persons with disabilities and so I’m sure that we will be able to advance the cause and the worth of persons in this community,” he stated.

Among the urgent concerns raised at the meeting were: access to housing, educational support, funding for non-governmental organisations, employment opportunities, assistance for parents and families, and provision of sign language interpreters and medication, an addressing health issues.

*To read this entire article, please click on this urlink for more.

How Minnie the Moocher Helped Awaken an Elder

Old Man In Nursing Home Reacts To Hearing Music From His Era

To view a powerful video that depicts the amazing resilience of the human mind and spirit - and artistic expression - please click on this urlink or the video window below.

Study: More & More Children are Being Raised by Family and Friends

Number of Children Raised by Relatives, Family Friends Continues to Climb, Report Finds
May 29, 2012

Kinship care, or the practice of children living with adults other than their biological parents for any period of time, is a part of the human experience that dates back thousands of years (remember Moses?).  New attention, however, is being paid to kinship care as it exists in the U.S. today.   According to a recent study, almost three million children currently live with relatives/friends in the United States.  About 25 percent of children in foster care (about 100,000) live with relatives and about 400,000 children avoided foster care because of relative placement. 

Almost ten percent of children live with relatives/friends for some period of time and twenty percent of black children do.   The study also argued that relative placement is better for children regardless of label (but it did not necessarily make the "better" assertion in direct comparison to anything) because kin care minimizes shock and adjustment difficulties for children moving from home.

In Florida, about four percent of all children in the state are in some type of kincare which is consistent with national figures however, 43 percent of all children in foster care in the Sunshine State are in “state-supervised kinship foster care” which is the second-highest percentage in the country (Hawai’i is at 46 percent).  

*The national percentage of children in the foster care system living with relatives is 26 percent.

The study also cites data from the Census Bureau that indicates that relative caregiver situations are at-risk of being poorer, isolated, older, under educated and underemployed than in situations where even just one of parent is present.  

 To read the entire study and learn more about kinship care, please click on this urlink for more.

Study: People Living in the Southern USA are Most Likely to Have Strokes

Strokes More Common in Southern States: CDC

Little decline seen in past 5 years, minorities hardest hit

Thursday, May 24, 2012

While fewer people in the United States are dying from strokes, the number of strokes has remained about the same, health officials report. And their findings bear out the South's reputation as the nation's so-called "stroke belt."

According to the report on stroke prevalence from 2006 to 2010, the number of self-reported strokes dipped slightly from 2.7 percent to 2.6 percent during that time. However, disparities still exist by geography, race and ethnicity, says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Overall, there is not much change in these five years," said lead report author Dr. Jing Fang, an epidemiologist in CDC's Division of Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention.

Only two states -- Georgia and South Dakota -- showed a significant decrease, she added.

However, deaths from stroke decreased significantly, with the CDC reporting a 3.6 percent decline from 2007 to 2008. More people survive strokes primarily because of better treatment.

Since this report is based on people reporting they had a stroke, it's no surprise that reported strokes did not drop significantly, and actually an increase in reported stroke would be expected, Fang said.

"Since mortality has decreased it means that more people say: 'yes, they had a stroke,'" she said.

The report was published in the May 25 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Geographically, there continues to be high incidence of stroke in Southeastern states, although some other states had high rates.

States with the highest rates of stroke include South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and Nevada.

Those with the lowest rates include New York, Michigan, Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Wyoming and the New England states.

Older people, American Indians/Alaska Natives, blacks and people with lower levels of education had more strokes than younger people, whites and those with higher levels of education, the researchers found.

The disparities in stroke, a leading cause of long-term disability, are largely due to lifestyle factors including obesity, high blood pressure and smoking, Fang said.

"Southern states have higher rates of obesity, smoking and hypertension, which are all risk factors for stroke," she said.

This is also true for blacks and American Indians/Alaska Natives, and people with lower levels of education, Fang said.

To read the entire text of this article, please click on this urlink.