ENABLE AMERICA PARTICIPATES IN REHABILITATION SERVICES EXPO -
VHA Prosthetic & Sensory Aids Services - Rehabilitation Services Conference & Exposition 2007
Enable America (www.enableamerica.org), located in Tampa, Florida is a not-for-profit organization whose goal is to work with all members of the community – including individuals with disabilities, service providers, government agencies, advocacy groups, existing organizations and employers – to eliminate barriers to employment and bridge the gap between job seekers with disabilities and the employers who want to hire them.
On Wednesday, December 12, 2007, Enable America exhibited at the conference themed: “VA Amputation Rehabilitation -- Teams, Treatment, and Technology." The purpose of this first annual Amputation focused conference was to provide education on current and emerging issues facing Prosthetic & Sensory Aids Services staff and other clinicians serving wounded OIF and OEF veterans with amputations.
VetConnect (http://www.enableamerica.org/vetconnect.asp) is an Enable America program designed to enhance existing rehabilitation programs for wounded warriors and to actively engage local civic, business and community leaders in the reorientation of disabled veterans to their communities.
Scott Heintz, VetConnect Director:
Thousands of returning wounded warriors receive treatment and rehabilitative services and are sent on their way. Our goal is to improve their recovery outcome through the early introduction of mentors with similar injuries who are completing or have completed the recovery process and wellness activities that boost the wounded warrior’s confidence and self esteem. We also engage communities and employment network resources on behalf of the wounded warrior to better facilitate their reintegration into the community and the workplace.
Enable America works closely with the USSOCOM Care Coalition, whose vision is to support Special Operations Forces (SOF) wounded warriors and their families for life. The USSOCOM Care Coalition strengthens the readiness of Special Operations by advocating for SOF wounded warriors, supporting SOF component family programs and partnering with both government and non-government organizations to ensure existing support and benefits are provided to SOF wounded warriors who have led the fight on the Global War on Terrorism.
Enable America provides support at a variety of locations including: Walter Reed Army Medical Center (Washington, DC); Brooke Army Medical Center (Fort Sam Houston, TX); Naval Medical Center San Diego (San Diego, CA); and Veterans’ Affairs Hospitals in Tampa, Florida; Richmond, Virginia; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Palo Alto, California.
Monday, December 17, 2007
ENABLE AMERICA HOSTS PROGRAM MENTORS FOR INFORMATIONAL SEMINAR
ENABLE AMERICA HOSTS PROGRAM MENTORS FOR INFORMATIONAL SEMINAR - 2nd VetConnect Mentor Training Session
Tampa, Hillsborough December 17, 2007 Non Profit
(PRLEAP.COM) Enable America (www.enableamerica.org), located in Tampa, Florida is a not-for-profit organization whose goal is to work with all members of the community – including individuals with disabilities, service providers, government agencies, advocacy groups, existing organizations and employers – to eliminate barriers to employment and bridge the gap between job seekers with disabilities and the employers who want to hire them.
On Saturday, December 8, 2007, Enable America held its second VetConnect Mentor Training Session. The meeting focused on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), which has been called the signature injury of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wounded warrior mentors and family members heard from a variety of speakers including experts from Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD) and Quality Living, Inc. (QLI), an Omaha-based rehabilitation center for people with TBI.
VetConnect (http://www.enableamerica.org/vetconnect.asp) is an Enable America program designed to enhance existing rehabilitation programs for wounded warriors and to actively engage local civic, business and community leaders in the reorientation of disabled veterans to their communities.
Scott Heintz, VetConnect Director:
Thousands of returning wounded warriors receive treatment and rehabilitative services and are sent on their way. Our goal is to improve their recovery outcome through the early introduction of mentors with similar injuries who are completing or have completed the recovery process and wellness activities that boost the wounded warrior’s confidence and self esteem.
Enable America works closely with the USSOCOM Care Coalition, whose vision is to support Special Operations Forces (SOF) wounded warriors and their families for life. The USSOCOM Care Coalition strengthens the readiness of Special Operations by advocating for SOF wounded warriors, supporting SOF component family programs and partnering with both government and non-government organizations to ensure existing support and benefits are provided to SOF wounded warriors who have led the fight on the Global War on Terrorism.
Enable America provides support at a variety of locations including: Walter Reed Army Medical Center (Washington, DC); Brooke Army Medical Center (Fort Sam Houston, TX); Naval Medical Center San Diego (San Diego, CA); and Veterans’ Affairs Hospitals in Tampa, Florida; Richmond, Virginia; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Palo Alto, California.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Dave Mikes Enable America Email Enable America 8132223227
Tampa, Hillsborough December 17, 2007 Non Profit
(PRLEAP.COM) Enable America (www.enableamerica.org), located in Tampa, Florida is a not-for-profit organization whose goal is to work with all members of the community – including individuals with disabilities, service providers, government agencies, advocacy groups, existing organizations and employers – to eliminate barriers to employment and bridge the gap between job seekers with disabilities and the employers who want to hire them.
On Saturday, December 8, 2007, Enable America held its second VetConnect Mentor Training Session. The meeting focused on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), which has been called the signature injury of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wounded warrior mentors and family members heard from a variety of speakers including experts from Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD) and Quality Living, Inc. (QLI), an Omaha-based rehabilitation center for people with TBI.
VetConnect (http://www.enableamerica.org/vetconnect.asp) is an Enable America program designed to enhance existing rehabilitation programs for wounded warriors and to actively engage local civic, business and community leaders in the reorientation of disabled veterans to their communities.
Scott Heintz, VetConnect Director:
Thousands of returning wounded warriors receive treatment and rehabilitative services and are sent on their way. Our goal is to improve their recovery outcome through the early introduction of mentors with similar injuries who are completing or have completed the recovery process and wellness activities that boost the wounded warrior’s confidence and self esteem.
Enable America works closely with the USSOCOM Care Coalition, whose vision is to support Special Operations Forces (SOF) wounded warriors and their families for life. The USSOCOM Care Coalition strengthens the readiness of Special Operations by advocating for SOF wounded warriors, supporting SOF component family programs and partnering with both government and non-government organizations to ensure existing support and benefits are provided to SOF wounded warriors who have led the fight on the Global War on Terrorism.
Enable America provides support at a variety of locations including: Walter Reed Army Medical Center (Washington, DC); Brooke Army Medical Center (Fort Sam Houston, TX); Naval Medical Center San Diego (San Diego, CA); and Veterans’ Affairs Hospitals in Tampa, Florida; Richmond, Virginia; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Palo Alto, California.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Dave Mikes Enable America Email Enable America 8132223227
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Talents recognized
Whether a blind criminal investigator or a deaf FBI Agent, the talent exhibited by persons with disabilities should not be underestimated or overlooked. Admittedly, some of us are more gifted in one manner than other, and to some extent, some of us are more fortunate than others in being able to act on opportunities. Being ever vigilant for that “knock” when an opportunity presents itself is one of the many adages often heard and tested to be true.
A few years ago, when Enable America was in the midst of a nationwide “listening tour” we had an opportunity to meet Sue Thomas and hear her story. As a young FBI agent she had been regulated to the Fingerprint Bureau for an extended assignment. As a deaf person, neither she nor the agency quite knew where advancement opportunities lied. Without forewarning, she was confronted by two “suits” from headquarters one morning. She looked up from a table full of fingerprints that she was comparing at the time and asked what she could do to be of help.
Knowing that having 2 guys from headquarters show up in the fingerprint lab could not be “good news” she was very apprehensive. They inquired, rather timidly and politely, whether she could read lips. Her first thought was to say “no” and see what happened then; but, how else would she have known what they were asking. They went on to ask if she watched movies. Again, she demurred but replied in the affirmative. Would she come over to headquarters the next day?
Sue went on to be an undercover investigator for the FBI watching surveillance films and translating the words that could not be heard but emanated from the lips of suspects. Sitting in dark corners of restaurants and observing suspects in clandestine conversations reporting their every word and, to star in a TV series, that ran for a while, FBEYE.
In a recent New York Times article a similar extraordinary experience and opportunity was highlighted (“In Fight Against Terror, Keen Ears Undistracted by Sight” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/17/world/europe/17vanloo.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin). Sacha Van Loo a criminal investigator in Belgium, who put his talent to work listening to interviews and recorded clandestine conversations, had more information in them than was being gleaned by the criminal unit. He went to work identifying background noises and inflections that led to answers that solved many mysteries. And, he has now been given the opportunity to build an investigation unit with others who, anxiously, top their blindness as a key qualification for admission to the group.
These are understandably, both entertaining and exemplary feats in using what we have as opposed to focusing on the limitations of our disabilities. They do, however, hold true for the most simple and mundane of tasks. How much pride I remember taking in learning how to put our household’s refuse cans on the curb for weekly collection. That is, until, I found myself lost on the street one night with neighbors, no cane and no way to get reoriented and find my way home. Thankfully, my wife had a twinge of concern before turning in and retrieved me from a neighbor’s driveway; perhaps that was not the best use of my talent after all.
November 17, 2007
THE SATURDAY PROFILE
In Fight Against Terror, Keen Ears Undistracted by Sight
By DAN BILEFSKY
ANTWERP, Belgium - SACHA VAN LOO is not your typical cop. He wields a white cane instead of a gun. And from the purr of an engine on a wiretap, he can discern whether a suspect is driving a Peugeot, a Honda or a Mercedes. Mr. Van Loo is one of Europe’s newest weapons in the global fight against terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime: a blind Sherlock Holmes whose disability allows him to pick up clues sighted detectives do not see. “Being blind has forced me to develop my other senses, and my power as a detective rests in my ears,” he said from his office at the Belgian Federal Police, where a bullet-riddled piece of paper from a recent target-shooting session was proudly displayed on the wall. “Being blind also requires recognizing your limitations,” he added with a smile, noting that a sighted trainer guided his hands during target practice “to make sure no one got wounded.”
Mr. Van Loo, 36, a slight man who has been blind since birth, is one of six blind police officers in a pioneering unit specializing in transcribing and analyzing surveillance recordings in criminal investigations. An accomplished linguist who speaks seven languages, including Russian and Arabic, and taught himself Serbian for fun, he laments that he is not entitled to carry a gun on the job or to make arrests.
But his sense of hearing is so acute that Paul Van Thielen, a director at the Belgian Federal Police, compared his powers of observation to those of a superhero. When the police eavesdrop on a terrorism suspect making a phone call, Mr. Van Loo can identify the number instantly by listening to the tones. By hearing the sound of a voice echoing off a wall, he can deduce whether a suspect is speaking from an airport lounge or a crowded restaurant.After the Belgian police spent hours struggling to identify a drug smuggler on a faint wiretap recording, they concluded he was Moroccan. Mr. Van Loo, who says he has a “library of accents” in his head, listened and deduced that the man was Albanian; the arrest proved him right. “I have had to train my ear to know where I am,” Mr. Van Loo said. “It is a matter of survival to cross the street or get on a train. Some people can get lost in background noise, but as a blind man I divide hearing into different channels. It is these details that can be the difference between solving and not solving a crime.”
Grappling with his blindness, he says, has also given him the thick emotional skin necessary for dealing with the job’s stresses. “I have overheard criminals plotting to commit murder, drug dealers making plans to drop off drugs, men beating each other up,” Mr. Van Loo said. “Being blind helps not to let it get to me because I have to be tough.” The blind police unit, which became operational in June, originated after Mr. Van Thielen heard about a blind police officer in the Netherlands and was looking for ways to improve community outreach. He hoped that blind people would prove more adept than the sighted at listening to surveillance recordings and interpreting them.
THE police also recognized that blind officers like Mr. Van Loo could be particularly valuable in counterterrorism investigations because surveillance recordings are often muffled by loud background noise, requiring a highly trained ear to discern voices. Alain Grignard, a senior counterterrorism officer at the Brussels Federal Police, noted that wiretaps proved instrumental in the recent arrests of a large terrorist cell in Belgium that was recruiting for the insurgency in Iraq. The Belgian police said they were amazed at the number of qualified blind applicants for the six posts in the unit. Scoring high on a hearing test was a prerequisite, as was being at least 33 percent blind. Mr. Van Thielen, the police chief, said he had to turn away dozens of applicants whose sight was too good, including one “blind” man who shocked recruiters by driving to his interview. Recruiting blind people posed other challenges, Mr. Van Thielen recalled. Because they would be used mostly for electronic surveillance, they were given special status under a 2006 law tailored for forensic work that grants civilians some police powers but forbids them to make arrests or carry guns.Mr. Van Thielen, a no-nonsense police veteran, also had to deal with officers who feared that having blind colleagues would be a burden. Others felt awkward about how to behave in front of blind people and wondered if saying “au revoir” — literally “see you again” — would give offense. To assuage their concerns, Mr. Van Thielen arranged for sensitivity training sessions with blind volunteers. The hints included this one: Don’t leave computer cables trailing on the floor where blind officers can trip over them.
“At first when members of the police heard that blind people were coming to work here, they laughed and told me that we were a police force and not a charity,” Mr. Van Thielen said. “But attitudes changed when the blind officers arrived and showed their determination to work hard and be useful.”It was not only attitudes that needed updating. In addition to installing elevators with voice-activated buttons at the police station, the force issued each blind officer a special computer equipped with a Braille keyboard and a system that translates images on the screen into sound.As Mr. Van Loo transcribed a wiretap recording on a recent day, he wore earphones and passed his index finger over a long strip of Braille characters on the bottom of the keyboard. When he goes outside, he carries a compact police-issued global positioning system device with a voice that directs him to his destination, street by street.
A FATHER of two, Mr. Van Loo attributed his success to having parents who taught him at an early age to be independent. He recalled that when he was a young child, his father, a film buff, took him to movies. His father also taught him to drive a car by hoisting him on his lap and guiding his hands on the steering wheel.
His ability to adapt, he said, was reinforced by attending a regular high school. He also attended a school for the blind, where he learned to maneuver with a cane and to read Russian in Braille. To relax, he skis, rides horses and plays the Arabic lute.
“My parents accepted my blindness, which also helped me to accept it,” he said. “That they were not risk averse also helped.”
Mr. Van Loo said he remained determined not to let his disability overwhelm him. “Being blind isn’t always very easy,” he said. “I don’t focus on it. I don’t deny it. But it is rather tragic that a blind policeman is still viewed as an exception.”
Thursday, October 25, 2007
The correct steps by Richard Salem
Memories of the Disability Mentoring Day kickoff breakfast at Tavern on the Green that almost faded when the import of the words spoken and the feelings expressed that morning came home to roost. Across the conference table sat a scientist. He recounted the meticulous steps taken in his quest to convert swine waste into fuel. Before revealing his secret to success, hopeful of landing a grant for a prototype, there came a moment of enlightenment.
A year or so ago he had approached our Farm Pilot Project organization to explain his discovery and gather information to submit a funding application. That turned out to be a fateful day. As he explained “I was a bit distracted then. My daughter was in the hospital, having been diagnosed with an embolism at the base of her brain. We were hopeful that surgery would not be necessary. But, it was”. Somewhat hesitant to ask, we pressed on to inquire whether she had experienced any setbacks since.
What we heard was all too familiar. This brave 7 year old feared not, and had started anew as a child with a life-altering disability. Her left side was partially paralyzed, her speech impaired, and she was learning a bit slower than her able-bodied peers. The uphill climb with the school system. The encouragement not to shy away from new friends but, rather, give them a chance to get to know her. And, the development of a mantra so difficult for most of us, and almost impossible for a first grader; be patient with others, be patient with yourself and be patient for those things that are most important to you.
In less than a week of “preaching to a choir of believers” at Tavern on the Green and thanking Mayor Bloomberg for his support, we sat across the table from a parent wondering, hoping and praying that his daughter would be given a chance to experience the American dream.
In short order the scientist, as a father, asked, “What steps do you suggest we take?”
I said, "Do exactly what you have done in coming here today for your business, keep identifying resources and making the connection to access them. And, importantly, remember you are not by yourself; in fact, you are never more than 2 ½ persons away from someone who has or is experiencing the daily challenge of managing a life altering disability."
Richard Salem is the Chairman of Enable America, a national organization endeavoring to increase employment among persons with disabilities and social inclusion, civic engagement through building grass roots and grass top, community, business and vet “connections.” Join us at http://www.enableamerica.org
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Networking resources paint the picture
On a sunny and cool morning in a town not known for its art, but where it is plentiful, an article in the USA Today, “Disabled Artists Get Broad Strokes of Resilience” got my attention. Its author, Kate Naseef, took us through a brief account of Dennis Francesconi’s extraordinary experience in learning to express his ideas, through painting, after being unexpectedly paralyzed from the neck down.
The piece described in the article, Freedom, America Remembers, will comprise six paintings and stand 6 feet tall. Dennis found a support structure, Mouth and Foot Painting Artists (MFPA), and learned from the experience of others how to best leverage his talent. Its “self help not pity” that motivates the artist, a director accounts. And, to that end, Dennis moved from sitting idle to visiting at veterans’ hospitals and speaking with our wounded war fighters over the course of a few short years.
The story struck me not because of Dennis’ determination and beautiful art alone, but, also because of what is not said.
I work with Enable America and traveling throughout the country allows us to meet persons with disabilities. Without exception, each has a gift, a talent, a love of life and passion to share. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know how Dennis reconnected with his passion and found the MFPA? So many of us struggle so hard, daily, to manage the distractions that naturally flow from managing to live in a world best suited for the able bodied. Little time or energy is left to think of much else or do anything.
Understanding what resources are available to us and connecting with them is often easier said then done. As Enable America’s volunteers work in the field we strive to identify and learn about the depth and variety of programs offered through community based organizations. It is through networking theses “hometown” resources with other local, national and international programs that follow will have resources readily available to assist them in becoming “artists” in their own right.
On leaving Las Vegas, a city short on water and workers, we can only wonder how many of those casino patrons knew of MFPA or other organizations that were at the ready. Please take a moment to help us continue to build a network of networks, for a word of guidance or a helping hand need not be more a phone call or click away. Visit http://www.enableamerica.org for more information.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-10-21-disabled-artists_N.htm
Richard Salem is the Chairman of Enable America, a national organization endeavoring to increase employment among persons with disabilities and social inclusion, civic engagement through building grass roots and grass top, community, business and vet “connections.” Join us at http://www.enableamerica.org
Monday, October 22, 2007
Choosing limitations in Virtual Worlds
The emergence of a “virtual world” through sites such as Second Life are both cause for hope and concern. With so much information and real time access to those in the know, we are all bound to learn a great deal about ourselves and others. But, as President Bush reminded us over a year ago, our nationwide community was built on people building relationships and working with one another in real life (RL). Here is a person with a life-altering disability, for example, likely to find comfort and respite living though an avatar. Or will that “Second Life” provide them with the confidence and courage to recognize that RL is the true hope to fulfilling dreams. A copy of Bob Stein’s article, “Real Hope in a Virtual World,” that appeared in the Washington Post on October 6, 2007, follows.
Real Hope in a Virtual World
Online Identities Leave Limitations Behind
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 6, 2007
After suffering a devastating stroke four years ago, Susan Brown was left in a wheelchair with little hope of walking again. Today, the 57-year-old Richmond woman has regained use of her legs and has begun to reclaim her life, thanks in part to encouragement she says she gets from an online "virtual world" where she can walk, run and even dance.
Roberto Salvatierra, long imprisoned in his home by his terror over going outdoors, has started venturing outside more after gaining confidence by first tentatively exploring the three-dimensional, interactive world on the Internet.
John Dawley III, who has a form of autism that makes it hard to read social cues, learned how to talk with people more easily by using his computer-generated alter ego to practice with other cyber-personas.
Brown, Salvatierra and Dawley are just a few examples of an increasing number of sick, disabled and troubled people who say virtual worlds are helping them fight their diseases, live with their disabilities and sometimes even begin to recover. Researchers say they are only starting to appreciate the impact of this phenomenon.
"We're at a major technical and social transition with this technology. It has very recently started to become a very big deal, and we haven't by any means digested what the implications are," said William Sims Bainbridge, a social scientist at the National Science Foundation.
In addition to helping individual patients, virtual worlds are being used for a host of other health-related purposes. Medical schools are using them to train doctors. Health departments are using them to test first responders. Researchers are using them to gain insights into how epidemics spread. Health groups are using them to educate the public and raise money.
These increasingly sophisticated online worlds enable people to create rich virtual lives through "avatars" -- identities they can tailor to their desires: Old people become young. Infirm people become vibrant. Paralyzed people become agile.
They walk, run, and even fly and "teleport" around vast realms offering shopping malls, bars, homes, parks and myriad other settings with trees swaying in the wind, fog rolling in and an occasional deer prancing past. They schmooze, flirt and comfort one another using lifelike shrugs, slouches, nods and other gestures while they type instant messages or talk directly through headsets.
Because the full-color, multifaceted nature of the experience offers so much more "emotional bandwidth" than traditional Web sites, e-mail lists and discussion groups, users say the experience can feel astonishingly real. Participants develop close relationships and share intimate details even while, paradoxically, remaining anonymous. Some say they open up in ways they never would in face-to-face encounters in real support groups, therapy sessions, or even with family and close friends in their true lives.
"You're in this imaginary world. People don't know much about who you really are. In that anonymity, in that almost dreamlike state, people express things about themselves they may not otherwise," said John Suler, who studies the psychology of the Internet at Rider University in New Jersey, noting the experience can be especially useful for people with disabilities and those in remote areas where support groups or therapists are far away.
While the emergence of these worlds has generated controversy over the gender-bending, sexually outrageous, profiteering and even violent virtual behavior of some participants, their usefulness for meeting health needs has just begun to draw attention.
"There is a fundamental irony here," said Thomas H. Murray of the Hastings Center, a medical ethics think tank in Garrison, N.Y. "Avatars tend to be young, beautiful, and never age or get sick. But at the same time they can serve as an important way to share information about health."
Murray and others, however, worry that participants may neglect potentially more helpful real-life relationships, or have unrealistic expectations about what virtual worlds can do. Users and health-care providers may be rushing ahead, they say, without validating the usefulness of these worlds or identifying the dangers.
"We've seen the power of the Internet and what it can do," said Albert "Skip" Rizzo, a University of Southern California psychologist who treats traumatized Iraq war veterans with virtual reality. "But as we all know there can also be negative consequences. We really need to step back and think, 'What are the practical and ethical things we can do in the area of health, and what can't we do?' "
The emotional punch of virtual worlds make them fertile breeding grounds for false, misleading and possibly dangerous information. Sick, lonely and psychologically fragile people are particularly vulnerable.
"You have the same risks as elsewhere on the Internet," Murray said. "A lot of the information is garbage. There is always the possibility fraudsters will try to gain people's confidence to peddle phony cures or otherwise do things that are not in people's interests."
Still, an increasing number of major health organizations are trying to take advantage of virtual worlds for public health education, patient support and fundraising.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested a small "office" in the popular virtual world Second Life "staffed" by Hygeia Philo, an avatar named after the Greek goddess of health, and is now planning a bigger, permanent presence. The American Cancer Society has an elaborate "island" offering virtual lectures by avatar doctors, support group meetings and other activities, such as an annual fundraising marathons that last year raised more than $115,000 in real money. The March of Dimes is building a virtual neonatal intensive-care unit to warn about the dangers of preterm births. The National Library of Medicine is helping fund HealthInfo Island, where users can get reliable medical information.
Meanwhile, scientists are beginning to study virtual worlds for insights into real-life health problems. Two teams analyzed a virtual epidemic of "corrupted blood" that devastated the World of Warfare online game for clues to how people might react during a real pandemic. Another examined a pox that infects avatars in a children's virtual world called Whyville, which the CDC is using to learn better ways to boost pediatric flu vaccination rates in the real world.
Medical schools and health departments have also started using virtual worlds. A University of California psychiatrist developed a virtual psych ward echoing with disembodied voices to help caregivers better understand schizophrenia. Stanford University doctors built virtual operating and emergency rooms to train young doctors. Britain's National Health Service constructed an entire virtual hospital.
So much is happening in virtual worlds that researchers at Harvard Medical School are planning to explore the possibilities at a seminar later this month, and the National Defense University in Washington is hosting a conference next month about ways that federal agencies, including the CDC and the National Institutes of Health, can use the phenomenon.
Individual practitioners, meanwhile, are discovering virtual worlds on their own. After meeting other health-care professionals in Second Life, which with 9 million members is among the largest, Lawrence Whitehurst, a family doctor in Culpeper, Va., founded the Second Life Medical Association.
"I don't diagnose, and I don't treat. What I try to do is provide medical advice and support for people undergoing real-world medical problems," Whitehurst said.
Some therapists, however, have started using virtual worlds to treat patients for a host of problems, in both their real and virtual lives.
"It doesn't work for everybody, but it works for a large majority of patients," said Brenda Wiederhold of the Virtual Reality Medical Center in San Diego, who uses the virtual world DigitalSpace to help patients overcome fear of public speaking and severe shyness.
While Wiederhold said she treats only patients she has counseled in her office first, others are offering therapy to patients they have never met or know little about.
"My clients' problems range from domestic love tangles to complex and difficult real life situations," Elena Mangan, who counsels patients anonymously in Second Life from Britain, wrote in an e-mail.
Such anonymous counseling disturbs many therapists. Internet therapy denies counselors vital clues from subtle body language, affect and tone of voice, they say. And anonymity can carry risks.
"How do you ensure the patient's safety?" said Richard Bedrosian, a clinical psychologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. "Suppose they say, 'I'm going to shoot my girlfriend or kill myself.' How do you protect that person? How do you intervene?"
But the biggest users of virtual worlds for health purposes so far appear to be individual patients. Dozens of support groups have formed by and for those with cancer, paralysis, strokes, depression, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, autism and other ailments.
Susan Brown, the stroke victim, said encouragement from other survivors in Dreams, one of several protected areas in Second Life for people with disabilities, and the experience of seeing herself walking again, aided her recovery.
"It helped me visualize," Brown said through her avatar, Marie Hightower, during an interview in a virtual field near a virtual home she built in Dreams, as virtual butterflies flitted past. "I stumbled here just like I stumbled in RL [real life]," she typed.
Salvatierra, the agoraphobic, Dawley, the patient with Asperger syndrome, and others tell similar stories.
"It's kind of like getting your life back again, but even better in some ways," said Kathie Olson, 53, who uses a wheelchair, lives alone and rarely leaves her home near Salt Lake City. In Second Life, she roams about as Kat Klata, a curvy young brunette who runs the Dragon Inn nightclub. "I've met so many people. I can walk. I can dance. I can even fly. Without this I'd just be staring at four walls. Mentally it's helped me so much."
For Stephanie Koslow, 48, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., her virtual life is helping sustain her as she fights advanced breast cancer.
"It's not real, but it's real in a way," said Koslow, whose avatar is a pink fox named Artistic Fimicoloud. "I might spend an afternoon trying on silly wings and laughing with friends. And laughter heals."
Richard Salem is the Chairman of Enable America, a national organization endeavoring to increase employment among persons with disabilities and social inclusion, civic engagement through building grass roots and grass top, community, business and vet “connections.” Join us at http://www.enableamerica.org
Real Hope in a Virtual World
Online Identities Leave Limitations Behind
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 6, 2007
After suffering a devastating stroke four years ago, Susan Brown was left in a wheelchair with little hope of walking again. Today, the 57-year-old Richmond woman has regained use of her legs and has begun to reclaim her life, thanks in part to encouragement she says she gets from an online "virtual world" where she can walk, run and even dance.
Roberto Salvatierra, long imprisoned in his home by his terror over going outdoors, has started venturing outside more after gaining confidence by first tentatively exploring the three-dimensional, interactive world on the Internet.
John Dawley III, who has a form of autism that makes it hard to read social cues, learned how to talk with people more easily by using his computer-generated alter ego to practice with other cyber-personas.
Brown, Salvatierra and Dawley are just a few examples of an increasing number of sick, disabled and troubled people who say virtual worlds are helping them fight their diseases, live with their disabilities and sometimes even begin to recover. Researchers say they are only starting to appreciate the impact of this phenomenon.
"We're at a major technical and social transition with this technology. It has very recently started to become a very big deal, and we haven't by any means digested what the implications are," said William Sims Bainbridge, a social scientist at the National Science Foundation.
In addition to helping individual patients, virtual worlds are being used for a host of other health-related purposes. Medical schools are using them to train doctors. Health departments are using them to test first responders. Researchers are using them to gain insights into how epidemics spread. Health groups are using them to educate the public and raise money.
These increasingly sophisticated online worlds enable people to create rich virtual lives through "avatars" -- identities they can tailor to their desires: Old people become young. Infirm people become vibrant. Paralyzed people become agile.
They walk, run, and even fly and "teleport" around vast realms offering shopping malls, bars, homes, parks and myriad other settings with trees swaying in the wind, fog rolling in and an occasional deer prancing past. They schmooze, flirt and comfort one another using lifelike shrugs, slouches, nods and other gestures while they type instant messages or talk directly through headsets.
Because the full-color, multifaceted nature of the experience offers so much more "emotional bandwidth" than traditional Web sites, e-mail lists and discussion groups, users say the experience can feel astonishingly real. Participants develop close relationships and share intimate details even while, paradoxically, remaining anonymous. Some say they open up in ways they never would in face-to-face encounters in real support groups, therapy sessions, or even with family and close friends in their true lives.
"You're in this imaginary world. People don't know much about who you really are. In that anonymity, in that almost dreamlike state, people express things about themselves they may not otherwise," said John Suler, who studies the psychology of the Internet at Rider University in New Jersey, noting the experience can be especially useful for people with disabilities and those in remote areas where support groups or therapists are far away.
While the emergence of these worlds has generated controversy over the gender-bending, sexually outrageous, profiteering and even violent virtual behavior of some participants, their usefulness for meeting health needs has just begun to draw attention.
"There is a fundamental irony here," said Thomas H. Murray of the Hastings Center, a medical ethics think tank in Garrison, N.Y. "Avatars tend to be young, beautiful, and never age or get sick. But at the same time they can serve as an important way to share information about health."
Murray and others, however, worry that participants may neglect potentially more helpful real-life relationships, or have unrealistic expectations about what virtual worlds can do. Users and health-care providers may be rushing ahead, they say, without validating the usefulness of these worlds or identifying the dangers.
"We've seen the power of the Internet and what it can do," said Albert "Skip" Rizzo, a University of Southern California psychologist who treats traumatized Iraq war veterans with virtual reality. "But as we all know there can also be negative consequences. We really need to step back and think, 'What are the practical and ethical things we can do in the area of health, and what can't we do?' "
The emotional punch of virtual worlds make them fertile breeding grounds for false, misleading and possibly dangerous information. Sick, lonely and psychologically fragile people are particularly vulnerable.
"You have the same risks as elsewhere on the Internet," Murray said. "A lot of the information is garbage. There is always the possibility fraudsters will try to gain people's confidence to peddle phony cures or otherwise do things that are not in people's interests."
Still, an increasing number of major health organizations are trying to take advantage of virtual worlds for public health education, patient support and fundraising.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested a small "office" in the popular virtual world Second Life "staffed" by Hygeia Philo, an avatar named after the Greek goddess of health, and is now planning a bigger, permanent presence. The American Cancer Society has an elaborate "island" offering virtual lectures by avatar doctors, support group meetings and other activities, such as an annual fundraising marathons that last year raised more than $115,000 in real money. The March of Dimes is building a virtual neonatal intensive-care unit to warn about the dangers of preterm births. The National Library of Medicine is helping fund HealthInfo Island, where users can get reliable medical information.
Meanwhile, scientists are beginning to study virtual worlds for insights into real-life health problems. Two teams analyzed a virtual epidemic of "corrupted blood" that devastated the World of Warfare online game for clues to how people might react during a real pandemic. Another examined a pox that infects avatars in a children's virtual world called Whyville, which the CDC is using to learn better ways to boost pediatric flu vaccination rates in the real world.
Medical schools and health departments have also started using virtual worlds. A University of California psychiatrist developed a virtual psych ward echoing with disembodied voices to help caregivers better understand schizophrenia. Stanford University doctors built virtual operating and emergency rooms to train young doctors. Britain's National Health Service constructed an entire virtual hospital.
So much is happening in virtual worlds that researchers at Harvard Medical School are planning to explore the possibilities at a seminar later this month, and the National Defense University in Washington is hosting a conference next month about ways that federal agencies, including the CDC and the National Institutes of Health, can use the phenomenon.
Individual practitioners, meanwhile, are discovering virtual worlds on their own. After meeting other health-care professionals in Second Life, which with 9 million members is among the largest, Lawrence Whitehurst, a family doctor in Culpeper, Va., founded the Second Life Medical Association.
"I don't diagnose, and I don't treat. What I try to do is provide medical advice and support for people undergoing real-world medical problems," Whitehurst said.
Some therapists, however, have started using virtual worlds to treat patients for a host of problems, in both their real and virtual lives.
"It doesn't work for everybody, but it works for a large majority of patients," said Brenda Wiederhold of the Virtual Reality Medical Center in San Diego, who uses the virtual world DigitalSpace to help patients overcome fear of public speaking and severe shyness.
While Wiederhold said she treats only patients she has counseled in her office first, others are offering therapy to patients they have never met or know little about.
"My clients' problems range from domestic love tangles to complex and difficult real life situations," Elena Mangan, who counsels patients anonymously in Second Life from Britain, wrote in an e-mail.
Such anonymous counseling disturbs many therapists. Internet therapy denies counselors vital clues from subtle body language, affect and tone of voice, they say. And anonymity can carry risks.
"How do you ensure the patient's safety?" said Richard Bedrosian, a clinical psychologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. "Suppose they say, 'I'm going to shoot my girlfriend or kill myself.' How do you protect that person? How do you intervene?"
But the biggest users of virtual worlds for health purposes so far appear to be individual patients. Dozens of support groups have formed by and for those with cancer, paralysis, strokes, depression, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, autism and other ailments.
Susan Brown, the stroke victim, said encouragement from other survivors in Dreams, one of several protected areas in Second Life for people with disabilities, and the experience of seeing herself walking again, aided her recovery.
"It helped me visualize," Brown said through her avatar, Marie Hightower, during an interview in a virtual field near a virtual home she built in Dreams, as virtual butterflies flitted past. "I stumbled here just like I stumbled in RL [real life]," she typed.
Salvatierra, the agoraphobic, Dawley, the patient with Asperger syndrome, and others tell similar stories.
"It's kind of like getting your life back again, but even better in some ways," said Kathie Olson, 53, who uses a wheelchair, lives alone and rarely leaves her home near Salt Lake City. In Second Life, she roams about as Kat Klata, a curvy young brunette who runs the Dragon Inn nightclub. "I've met so many people. I can walk. I can dance. I can even fly. Without this I'd just be staring at four walls. Mentally it's helped me so much."
For Stephanie Koslow, 48, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., her virtual life is helping sustain her as she fights advanced breast cancer.
"It's not real, but it's real in a way," said Koslow, whose avatar is a pink fox named Artistic Fimicoloud. "I might spend an afternoon trying on silly wings and laughing with friends. And laughter heals."
Richard Salem is the Chairman of Enable America, a national organization endeavoring to increase employment among persons with disabilities and social inclusion, civic engagement through building grass roots and grass top, community, business and vet “connections.” Join us at http://www.enableamerica.org
Friday, October 12, 2007
ENABLE AMERICA PROMOTES DISABILITY MENTORING DAY 2007
Friday, October 12, 2007, Tampa, FL - Enable America is proud to be a part of Disability Mentoring Day on October 17, 2007 nationwide.
Disability Mentoring Day offers an opportunity for people with disabilities to get hands-on, real-life employment exposure by bringing together job-seekers with businesses to open doors, provide mentorship and explore career opportunities.
Disability Mentoring Day started as National Disability Mentoring Day in 1999 in the White House, as a program to increase the profile of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, which is celebrated every October.
Enable America was founded in 2002 by attorney Richard Salem in Tampa as a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people with disabilities find employment and live independently. It is the first organization dedicated solely to reducing unemployment among people with disabilities.
To better understand the issues facing the disability community, Enable America traveled across the nation and conducted Disability Town Hall Meetings in more than 20 cities in 17 states during a three-year period of time. This listening tour gathered together members of the disability community, business people, educators, service providers, civic organizations and political leaders in cities such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Tampa, Chicago, San Diego and Los Angeles. Participants identified five key concerns among individuals with disabilities: employment, health care, affordable housing, transportation and benefits.
Enable America is committed to raising awareness of employment-related disability issues on a local and national level.
Good things happen when people have jobs. Visit www.enableamerica.org for more information.
Disability Mentoring Day offers an opportunity for people with disabilities to get hands-on, real-life employment exposure by bringing together job-seekers with businesses to open doors, provide mentorship and explore career opportunities.
Disability Mentoring Day started as National Disability Mentoring Day in 1999 in the White House, as a program to increase the profile of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, which is celebrated every October.
Enable America was founded in 2002 by attorney Richard Salem in Tampa as a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people with disabilities find employment and live independently. It is the first organization dedicated solely to reducing unemployment among people with disabilities.
To better understand the issues facing the disability community, Enable America traveled across the nation and conducted Disability Town Hall Meetings in more than 20 cities in 17 states during a three-year period of time. This listening tour gathered together members of the disability community, business people, educators, service providers, civic organizations and political leaders in cities such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Tampa, Chicago, San Diego and Los Angeles. Participants identified five key concerns among individuals with disabilities: employment, health care, affordable housing, transportation and benefits.
Enable America is committed to raising awareness of employment-related disability issues on a local and national level.
Good things happen when people have jobs. Visit www.enableamerica.org for more information.
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