The Scene

Issue 8, 30 April 2007

Back to The Spastic Centre

Feature

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: Hot or Not?
Over the past few years, concerned parents have been contacting The Spastic Centre about Hyperbaric Oxygen (HBO) Therapy and its use in children with cerebral palsy. Parents have found out about HBO therapy via the Internet. They have seen claims of dramatic improvements - ranging from reduced spasticity, to development of new language skills and independent walking - and are very curious to see whether these stories are true.

CanChild in Canada, with Peter Rosenbaum, Darcy Fehlings and Carlyn Iliffe, have produced an article ‘Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: Hot or Not?’ It briefly reviews the biological activity of HBO, presents possible mechanisms of action in cerebral palsy, reviews the available literature, and includes a discussion of the findings of a recent well-designed randomized clinical trial of HBO Therapy carried out in Canada.

The article sums up by saying that The SCOPE Foundation and the United Cerebral Palsy Research and Educational Foundation in the U.S. have both published position papers stating that there is not sufficient evidence to justify HBO at this time. It states, ‘There is now good evidence that, despite enthusiasm, anecdotes and hope for a breakthrough, HBO simply does not make a difference to the functional capacities of children with cerebral palsy’.

Read Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: Hot or Not.

Parents

Music Therapy
A music therapy clinic is now available at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) campus at Lindfield run by Bel Keevers.

A music therapist combines musicianship, creativity and interpersonal skills to form therapeutic relationships with people of all ages in order to promote healing. Music can provide an accessible means of self-expression for almost everyone and can be used to assist with cognitive development, behavioral issues and social skills. The therapy can also help vocalization and aid speech as well as helping build relationships and strengthen social interactions.

The length of intervention varies with each individual. It usually lasts for a term - by which time changes in the therapy room and at home are generally noticeable. An initial session includes assessment, observation, preliminary goal setting and recommendations.

For more information call Bel on 02 9849 1820 or email her at Belinda.Keevers@uts.edu.au or for more general information about music therapy, visit the Australian Music Therapy Association Inc website at www.austmta.org.au.

Transition to School for Young Children With Special Needs
South West Sydney Early Childhood Intervention Co-ordination Program, in conjunction with the Department of Education and Training and the Catholic Education Office, are running an information evening on ‘Transition to School For Young Children With Special Needs’. An overview of the transition to school process will be discussed along with support services that are available for the children. Questions will be answered!

The evening will be held at the Opal Room in the Campbelltown RSL Club on Wednesday 9 May 2007 from 6.30 – 8.30 pm and a light supper will be served. Please RSVP to Larraine Brown by phone 02 4620 0091 or by email ku.startingpointsmac@bigpond.com Alternatively you can download the registration form and fax it in on 02 4627 9454.

Toileting Fact Sheet
SCOPE UK has released a fact sheet about developing independent toileting skills. The fact sheet is aimed to offer parents and carers of children with cerebral palsy a basic introduction to some of the issues that may need to be considered when starting to move from nappies to using a potty and the toilet. It discusses issues such as communication and how to tell if your child is ready as well as giving a comprehensive checklist to help get through the process.

To view the full factsheet go to www.scope.org.uk/information/factsheets/ SCOPE factsheets are free, but you must register.

Travel

Quick Guide to Holidays in Europe, USA and the UK
SCOPE UK has developed a factsheet that is a brief guide to some holiday opportunities available for people with disability in Europe, America and the UK. It gives details of accessible accommodation, companies that offer specialist holiday packages as well as places that offer care whilst on holiday. There is even information about who to contact for travel insurance.

To view the full fact sheet go to Scope’s factsheet page at www.scope.org.uk/information/factsheets.

SCOPE factsheets are free, but you must register.

Wheelchair Accessible Hotels
Did you know that the futuristic Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai is wheelchair accessible? The online travel information site www.whenwetravel.com has an entire section dedicated to wheelchair accessible hotels. The site includes handy tips about which hotel to choose and lists hotels from allover the world … it’s a wonderful place to dream!

Each hotel is displayed with a picture, star rating, highest and lowest price per room and a description of its location and outstanding features. The site also has a link directly to each hotels site so you check availability without loading another page.

Go directly to When We Travel's Accessible Hotels page.

Arts

Creating a Space for Emerging Artists with a Disability
Accessible Arts, together with Pine Street Arts Studio, have launched a Visual Arts Centre. This Artist’s Studio will be a space for artists with a disability to further their technical skills and artistic practice through a series of workshops and master classes.

The eight workshops will be run at the Pine Street Studio in Chippendale, Sydney, 9.30 am – 4.30 pm, from 1 June to 10 August. Applications are due by 16 May. To receive more information and a registration form call Sancha Donald on 9251 6499 or visit the Accessible Arts website.

Penrith Photo Voice Project for People with Learning Difficulties
The Penrith Photo-Voice Project is a chance for people over 18 years with learning difficulties to have their say - using a disposable camera as their starting point. Participants will explore the social barriers to their self-determination (i.e. what gets in the way of them doing what they'd really like to do … from living life their way or restricting their opportunities to make choices, set goals and develop their autonomy). As a group, participants will then identify a common barrier and explore solutions for reduction or removal.

This project has a social action focus and it is hoped it will result in improved self-determination opportunities for the participants. This is an exciting and rare opportunity for people with learning difficulties to be actively involved in social research from their own perspective, around issues that concern them.

The project starts in May. If you are interested in participating, contact Janice on 0432 483 864 or email her at penrithphoto-voice@hotmail.com.

Sport

Adaptive Rowing
Further to the item in the last issue of The Scene … rowers with a disability are invited to join the National Adaptive Rowing Team. The team is particularly short of female rowers with a physical disability. Julia Collins, the National Champion Adaptive Female for the last four years, has qualified for national selection, however this year there has not been another female who has qualified. This means that there will not be a team for the World Rowing Championships in Munich, Germany 2007 or for the Paralympics in Beijing, China 2008.

The category in which Australia competes is called LTA 4+ (LTA refers to Legs, Trunk and Arms and 4+ means a coxed four with two males, two females). Men are welcome to enquire as well. If you are interested, or know somebody who may be interested, please contact the state or national Adaptive Rowing Coordinator/Development Officer. Stuart Halsall is the NSW rep. stuarthalsall@optusnet.com and Sami Irvine is the national rep. sirvine@rowingaustralia.co.

Money

Australian Government Centrelink Carers Online Service
Centrelink is now offering a new service for carers. If you are a carer, you can now register for self-service access to Centrelink’s services. This includes being able to view and update contact details, view payment history, replace health care card, view appointments and print out statements, all online. Some of these options are also available over the phone. If you register your mobile number, you can also choose to receive reminders via text messages.

For more information, call Centrelink on 13 2717 or visit www.centrelink.gov.au

Surveys

Funding for Schooling
The Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) has commissioned Monash University's Faculty of Education to investigate the funding of schooling for students with disabilities and to investigate ways in which Australian Government funding might be improved. They believe that this will give families of children with a disability an opportunity to 'have their say' in regard to the various issues they are facing when seeking appropriate holistic and necessary educational assistance for their child with a disability within the education system. It may also be an opportunity to seek a consistent funding model across Australia enabling families to have access to adequate funding no matter where they choose to live or which school they decide to choose for their child with a disability.

You can complete the survey online - Funding for Schooling Survey.

If you have any questions, please phone the Project Manager Ms Anne Savige on 03 9905 0726.

Multicultural

Disability Resources for Arabic Communities
The Multicultural Disability Advocacy Association (MDAA), together with a number of government and non-government disability service providers, are exploring the issue of information provision to people from an Arabic background. Their first step is to collect and link the resources that service providers are currently using.

MDAA is looking for:
- Resources for people with a disability or parents of children with a disability, written in Arabic;
- Resources that will help agencies provide better services to people from an Arabic background (written in English);
- Details of any specialist interest groups, support groups, associations relevant to people with disabilities – The groups can either be email groups or face-to-face interagencies, e.g. the Multicultural Interest Group for Speech Pathologists.

The resources that are suggested may be published on a website, or may be a Word or other document that people are sharing via email. They are interested in everything! But please only send Word and other documents if you have permission from the author to share the information publicly.

All resources will be published on the Arabic page of the MDAA Clearinghouse, which already has a great many links.

Technology

Jelly Beamer Wireless Switch
The Jelly Beamer wireless switch is the most efficient way to create a switch-cable free environment. Packaged with its own receiver, simply plug the receiver into your switch adapted appliance, toy or even a speech generating device and have immediately cable-less, wireless switching for up to 10m in distance.

Read more about Jelly Beamer at www.technability.com.au

Service Providers

NSW Speech Pathology Evidence Based Practice (EBP) Network
This new EBP network was established for speech pathologists to share the task of evidence-based practice in a collaborative forum. The aim is to provide opportunities for speech pathologists in NSW to learn together, share responsibility in collecting evidence-based data, and cooperatively evaluate its practical application to clinical practice.

Membership requires active participation, to develop clinical questions, evaluate the evidence, and produce documents such as Critically Appraised Papers and Topics. There are different clinical groups to join including Alternative and Augmentative Communication, Tracheostomy, Paediatric Feeding and Paediatric Language. Members will undergo specific EBP training before providing feedback through the networks structure.

All information will be available to everyone, with Critically Appraised Topics (CATs) and papers downloadable from the website.

Find the network at www.ciap.health.nsw.gov.au/ebp_speechpath/index.html
The CATs and papers are available at www.ciap.health.nsw.gov.au/ebp_speechpath/cats.html

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What would you like to see in "The Scene"? Email Robyn Cummins Information Manager at The Spastic Centre if you would like to contribute any ideas, advise of any future events or know of any websites that might be of interest to others.

Disclaimer
Opinions expressed in items of The Scene are the individual opinions of the respective authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of The Spastic Centre or the editors. Products and companies featured in The Scene are not necessarily endorsed by The Spastic Centre. The Scene is intended to be informative only and should not be relied on as medical or other technical advice on any matter. The Spastic Centre and editor take no responsibility for the information published in this newsletter or any person's actions in reliance on that information.