Monthly Memo - Aug. 8, 2007

Monthly Memo from the Desk of Dean Robert O. Kelley
73rd Edition
August 8, 2007

A Message from Dean Kelley
On July 10th, Deborah Fleming, Clinical Professor, served as a panelist for a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in Washington, DC. The hearing—"Community Services and Supports: Planning Across Generations"—was attended by an overflow crowd of disability advocates, consumers, and family members and focused on the need for change in the accessibility to long-term care services and support to elders and persons with disabilities. The session highlighted the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act (S.1758) sponsored by Senator Ted Kennedy and the Community Choice Act (S.799) supported by Senator Tom Harkin. In attendance were Senators Kennedy (chairman), Harkin, Mike Enzi (ranking member), and Lisa Murkowski. Deb was joined by witnesses Glenda Faatoafe (a home health care worker from Washington state), Monica Herring (a Maryland mother of a child with disabilities), Andrew Imparato (CEO of American Association of People with Disabilities), and Shawn Griffin (Director of Riverton's Community Entry Services). During the testimony, Senator Enzi commented that "today's long-term care, community services, and support system is fragmented and unavailable to most Americans. We need a coordinated response to provide a streamlined system."

In her testimony, Deb addressed the unique problems faced by a frontier state in which great distances, health professional shortages, and "entrenched systems that make it difficult to access services" create barriers for individuals and their families who try to navigate a complicated web of services and programs. Deb also described the need for a "nexus" of disability and aging services, which would focus on the needs of the individual rather than the type of disability or category used to describe the person. Senator Enzi asked her to outline in detail the Aging and Disability Resource Center grant obtained by the Wyoming INstitute for Disabilities and operated as a pilot in Natrona and Converse counties. The center uses a "single point of entry" approach to information and assistance through which trained counselors provide specific information about resources, eligibility, and processes and then guide individuals in making informed choices even when they are in crisis. Since the grant began in 2005, over 350 individuals have been assisted.

The hearing was viewed around the county via C-Span, and witnesses were asked to submit lengthy written testimony. They also agreed to answer in writing any follow-up questions of the committee members and staff.

News from the Divisions
Communication Disorders
On July 16th and 17th, the division sponsored the 4th Annual Barbara Kahn Lecture Series. During the meeting, keynote speaker Timothy P. Kowalski, a licensed, nationally renowned speech-language pathologist, presented a session on Asperger Syndrome, an autistic spectrum disorder, to graduate students, speech-language pathologists, psychologists, and counselors from across the state of Wyoming.

Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing (SON)
Susan McCabe, Associate Professor, and her co-writers will be active during the Rural Health Conference, Charting New Frontiers, to be presented by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office on Women's Health in mid-August in Washington, D.C. The group will speak about "The Women's Wellness Program at Migrant Health" and UW's "Women's Focus Group."

Robin DeCastro from Casper and Nancy McGee from Laramie, graduate students in the psychiatric nurse practioner program, were selected to participate in the Rising Stars of Scholarship and Research Program at the Sigma Theta Tau International's 39th biennial convention. The program recognizes outstanding potential scholars in graduate nursing programs from across the country. Robin and Nancy are exceptional students and have long-term goals to complete doctoral studies. At the convention to be held in Baltimore, Nancy will present "Rural Wyoming Communities' Perceptions of Individuals Experiencing Mental Illness," and Robin will present "Mental Health Assessment with a Rural Hispanic Community in Wyoming." We're very proud of these two Rising Stars!

Social Work
James Smith, Associate Professor, will be included in the upcoming 11th edition of Who's Who Among American Teachers & Educators. Jim will also present "Successful Aging: Enhancing the Quality of Life" during the Oxford Round Table being held at St. Anne's College in the University of Oxford, England.

Gail Leedy, Associate Professor, and Brenda Alexander, Assistant Professor of Animal Science, are developing an animal model of postpartum depression, a critical issue for medicine, mental health, families, and society. Reasoning that the ideal animals for study would be highly social, have an extended period in which they suckle their offspring, and display strong bonding between mother and offspring, the two selected 18 ewes from UW's commercial sheep flock just beginning to lamb. The two have achieved encouraging results from their initial studies and hope that their work will result in the reduction or termination of postpartum depression in humans.

Wyoming Institutes for Disabilities (WIND)
WIND's Accessibility Center is the clearinghouse for available media and technologies of the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS). Under new provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004, states are required to adopt a standard electronic file format for instructional materials that will enable students with print disabilities to access their core instructional materials. Instructional materials may need to be converted to Braille or large print for students with visual impairments or to audio books for students who learn better through oral presentations of material. Individuals who are unable to physically manipulate the pages of a book may also require a specialized format or assistive technologies to independently control their learning activities. With tools now available, eligible Wyoming students with print disabilities will be able to access their textbooks and supplemental materials at the same time other students in their classrooms do. Eligibility and request forms, as well as additional support information, can be found on Wyoming's NIMAS Web site (www.wind.uwyo.edu/nimas).

Pandemic Flu Preparedness Conference
On September 6th, the college and its co-sponsors—the Wyoming Department of Health, the Wyoming Business Alliance, the Wyoming Business Council, and the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security—will host "Pandemic Flu: It IS Your Business" at the Parkway Plaza in Casper. According to the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control, it is not a matter of if a pandemic will strike but when it will strike. Since a pandemic can cause major effects on global travel, trade, tourism, food, consumption, and financial markets, the conference is designed to help Wyoming business and medical professionals prepare and thereby minimize the results of an outbreak in the state. For details and registration information, please visit http://outreach.uwyo.edu/conferences/calendar and scroll down to Pandemic Flu Conference or call 877-733-3618 ext 1.

Posted on Wednesday, August 08, 2007