Southwest Educational Development Laboratory
Volume 8, Number 1, 2003
Making Copyright Law Work for You - A Word from the Director
To Promote the Progress of Science and Useful Arts
Useful Terms Related to Copyright
NIDRR Grantee Questions about Copyright
→ Who's in the News
NIDRR Grantee and Staff Recognition
Members of the NCDDR staff are on the lookout for popular and disability media pieces that present research funded by NIDRR. In this issue, we share items from:
Who's in the News is a feature of The Research Exchange that shares some of the stories about NIDRR grantees and their research that have appeared in national media sources. Staff members will talk with grantees and media representatives about the origin and evolution of the stories, and their interactions with media representatives. Sharing this may be helpful to other grantees who would like to establish relationships with journalists and work with them to make information about their research available to the public.
Please let us know when an item representing your NIDRR-funded project appears in the media. Call us, 1-800-266-1832, or send email to ncddr@sedl.org and the item will be reviewed for Who's in the News. You may also use an online form: http://www.ncddr.org/forms/submitnews.html
Exercise Barriers Seen for Spinal Cord Injury Survivors is an article in Newswise from November 22, 2002. The article is from a University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) Press Release that focused on current results and future research programs at the University of Michigan Model Spinal Cord Injury Care System. Principal Investigators are David Gater, M.D., Ph.D. and Denise Tate, Ph.D.
Research directed by Dr. Tate and resident William Scelza, M.D. focused on SCI patients' exercise habits (less than half do exercise, while over three-quarters said they would like to exercise) and barriers to exercise. Some barriers, such as lack of motivation or energy, are the same as for the general population. Others are related to their SCI, such as concern that staff would not know how to develop an appropriate exercise program, or that exercise might worsen their SCI.
"These initial results show the importance of health promotion in all people with physical disability, including spinal cord injury," says Tate. "For people who have survived the cause of their disability, it's crucial to help them prevent secondary conditions that can be partly attributed to their primary condition, from carpal tunnel syndrome and pressure sores, to life-threatening heart disease." The "Wellness with SCI Project" is funded by the U-M Venture Investment Fund (UMHS, 2002).
"Improvements in medical care and rehabilitation are giving SCI patients a longer post-accident life expectancy and better quality of life," says Gater. "Now, we need to focus more and more on the outsize risk of heart disease, diabetes and other disorders that SCI patients face because of a combination of lifestyle factors and the secondary physical effects of spinal cord injury" (UMHS, 2002).
"The dramatic and sudden physical changes that come with a spinal cord injury can also lead to psychological effects, says Tate, who specializes in the psychosocial aspects of SCI. People living with SCI have a much higher incidence of depression and substance abuse than the general population, she adds, and these may interfere with the drive to exercise or live well" (UMHS, 2002).
Dr. Tate and Dr. Gater work with several other NIDRR grants in addition to the SCI Model System. These include The UMHS/MSU/AACIL Rehabilitation Research Training Program; Identifying Social Integration Needs during Transition to Adulthood Following Traumatic Brain Injury; and Stress and Coping over the Life Course: A Perspective on Women with Spinal Cord Injury. For more information on the UM Model Spinal Cord Injury Care System, call (734) 763-0971, e-mail model_sci@umich.edu, or visit http://www.med.umich.edu/pmr/model_sci/
This information was presented on Newswise during the annual meeting of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, in Orlando, Florida. Newswise is an online community for reporters and media relations professionals who specialize in knowledge-based news, particularly science, medical, business, education and other research news. Contributors include major universities, associations, government agencies, and private institutions.
Original Newswise article:
http://www.newswise.com/articles/2002/11/SCIEX.MHS.html
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2002/spineexercise.htm
University of Michigan Health System (UMHS). (2002). People with spinal cord injuries need exercise too - but barriers to fitness persist, U-M study finds. (Press release, November 22, 2002. Quotes used with permission).
An article in the May/June 2002 issue of Progressive Farmer magazine highlighted Farmers and Arthritis, a project of the Missouri Arthritis Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (MARRTC). "Facing Up to Farmer's Health Risks," by Dan Miller and Gregg Hillyer, was the second in a six-part series on safety, health and wellness in farming.
Project coordinator Karen Funkenbusch said that the article helps encourage farmers with arthritis to take advantage of assistance that is available for them. Funkenbusch said that although many people know about the project, few take advantage of the help offered by MARRTC's Farmers and Arthritis Project. The project provides support to allow farmers with arthritis to continue their work on the farm. The project is a cooperative venture between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and MARRTC.
Progressive Farmer plans to do a cover story in 2003 focusing on arthritis and farming, according to Funkenbusch. For more information, contact her by email: funkenbuschk@missouri.edu or contact MARRTC's Senior Information Specialist, Dianna Borsi O'Brien obriendi@missouri.edu. Call (573) 882-2914.
From the MARRTC Web site:
Farmers Project Highlighted in National Magazine
The Louisville, Kentucky Courier-Journal cited information from the NIDRR-funded Research and Training Center on Rural Rehabilitation Services (RTC: Rural) in an article published February 3, 2003. Entitled People with disabilities embrace entrepreneurship, the article was written by Business reporter Marcus Green.
In covering small business and entrepreneurship, one of the issues Green follows locally is the implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, particularly its impact on small business owners. In thinking about barriers to access, he thought it would be interesting to see what it's like for entrepreneurs with disabilities. A contact in the Iowa Entrepreneurs with Disabilities project referred him to Dr. Nancy Arnold.
Arnold is Director of Research for Employment and Economic Development Projects at the RTC: Rural, located at the University of Montana. She shared some statistics on self-employment of people with disabilities from a recent national study of business owners with disabilities funded by NIDRR and conducted by the RTC:Rural.
In his story, Green shared experiences of two local people with disabilities who had started their own businesses. Their problems with financing and special issues related to their disabilities were presented. An RTC: Rural study in 1999 of over 300 business owners with disabilities found that more than half the respondents financed their start-up costs with their personal savings. Fewer than 16 percent used a bank loan or grants from a vocational rehabilitation agency.
For more information about the RTC: Rural, contact Diana Spas, Information Coordinator, at muarid@selway.umt.edu or call her: (406) 243-5760.
People with disabilities embrace entrepreneurship
http://www.courier-journal.com/business/news2003/02/03/bu020303s360047.htm
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