The independent living movement grew out of the anger and frustration of people with disabilities who were excluded from places of education, work, general retail, worship, and recreation due to barriers in architecture, transportation, and communications. Attitudes about people with disabilities ranged from low or no expectation to the promotion of the superhero, perpetuating the idea that people with disabilities, …
Shared peer advice from polio survivors about what works for them.
Share your solution:
News about people who have made significant contributions to the disability community.
Share your story:
Support Groups
GOALS AND LEADERSHIP WHAT ARE THEY? WHY DO IT ALONE? WHO NEEDS THEM? WHO CAN BENEFIT? IS OUR GROUP NORMAL? EN ESPAÑOL GOALS AND LEADERSHIP The goal of a support group is to empower its members with the tools necessary to make adjustments needed to continue a life of dignity and independence. Contrary to the image sometimes portrayed in the …
Best Post-Polio Advice
From the series, Polio Survivors Ask, by Nancy Baldwin Carter, B.A, M.Ed.Psych, from Omaha, Nebraska, is a polio survivor, a writer, and is founder and former director of Nebraska Polio Survivors Association. Q: We have known about the late effects of polio for almost 30 years. I’ve gotten a lot of advice during that time and wonder about other polio survivors. What’s the …
Support Group Dysfunction
From the series, Polio Survivors Ask, by Nancy Baldwin Carter, B.A, M.Ed.Psych, from Omaha, Nebraska, is a polio survivor, a writer, and is founder and former director of Nebraska Polio Survivors Association. Q: I am 58 years old and I attended a support group meeting recently. I will never go back. The members were friendly enough, but the message I heard over …
Part I — Opening the Door; PART II—The Rest of the Story
Nancy Baldwin Carter, BA, M Ed Psych, Omaha, Nebraska, is a polio survivor, a writer, and is founder and former director of Nebraska Polio Survivors Association. Part I — Opening the Door The subject doesn’t come up much. Not many in the post-polio community seem to want to talk about it. …Even though the American Medical Association declared it a disease well …
What’s a Patient to Do?
Nancy Baldwin Carter, BA, M Ed Psych, Omaha, Nebraska, is a polio survivor, a writer, and is founder and former director of Nebraska Polio Survivors Association. Let’s say we’re doctor-shopping. Maybe we’ve moved to a new city or our long-time doc is retiring—for whatever reason, we need a different doctor. Question is—where to start? How to choose? We all want the best. Someone …
Techniques to Help Us Make Changes
Mavis Matheson, MD, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada In 1995, I wrote an article called Changing Your Life By Conserving Energy. In it, I listed three techniques from an article by Sybil Kohl. Her techniques have helped me to make healthy choices and prevent further pain and weakness. Kohl [1] suggests three techniques that we could use to help ourselves make changes. These are …
What is expected of a group leader?
LEADERSHIP ∞ Nancy Baldwin Carter, Omaha, Nebraska QUESTION: “There is some question about what all is expected and not expected of the leaders of our group. We have a couple of new members who have come in and seem to think that we don’t ask for or take suggestions from anyone and that we are a three run group which we are …
Losing Members?
∞ LEADERSHIP Nancy Baldwin Carter, Omaha, Nebraska QUESTION: “Our group is down to about half a dozen members who rotate meeting at each other’s homes for lunch once a month. I’ve heard of other groups that are losing members as well. What can we do to keep our post-polio data bases from eroding to the point where we lose all contacts and …
Finding Good Information Online
∞ LEADERSHIP Nancy Baldwin Carter, Omaha, Nebraska QUESTION: “How do we help our members find good online information and use this in communicating with those in the medical community and others?” ANSWER: Finding reliable and relevant polio information online can sometimes be a challenge. The difficulty is not a paucity of information but rather the overwhelming number of possibilities to …
- Page 1 of 2
- 1
- 2