Varsity Flyers Current Record: 6-1

Varsity Flyers Next Tournament: Midwest Regional January 3 & 4, 2009 in Whitewater, WI

As posted at: www.spinalcord.org

Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana announced today that two of its ongoing lines of brain injury research have been awarded a total of $240,000 from the new Indiana Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Board. 

RHIs Jacob T. Kean, Ph.D., and his team of investigators will receive $120,000 for research into the involvement of acetylcholine, which is critical to the function of the brain and nervous system, in the rehabilitation phase of recovery following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Among the goals of the study is reduction of the severity of delirium a state of disorientation and confusion after TBI.

In addition, Keans study, titled An Exploration of the Hypocholinergic Hypothesis of Delirium Following Traumatic Brain Injury will also result in a first look at variables that may co-contribute to delirium risk and incidence, along with the effects of greater anticholinergic drug burden. Anticholinergic drugs reduce the effects of acetylcholine and include commonly prescribed medications such as stomach acid blockers.

Samantha Backhaus, Ph.D., is the principal investigator in a study aimed at identifying effective methods of assisting survivors of brain injury and their caregivers in the challenging adaptation required by brain injury, and also in identifying more clearly the reasons why group treatment is effective. She and her fellow researchers will also receive $120,000 for their important work, Brain Injury Coping Skills Group for Improving Self-Efficacy and Adjustment in Individuals with Brain Injury and Their Caregivers.

Our researchers are outstanding, and these awards are further evidence of that fact, said Dr. Jim Malec, research director for RHI. With the help of this funding, we will be able to make significant strides in better understanding brain injury and take steps to improve the lives of people living with disabilities.

The Indiana Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Board was created in 2007 by the Indiana General Assembly. One of the main purposes of its funding is to support research related to the treatment and cure of spinal cord and brain injuries, including acute management, medical complications, rehabilitative techniques and neural recovery. Grants from the Board are worth $120,000 each over the course of two years, and although collaborations are encouraged, the research must all be done in Indiana.

We are grateful to the Board for these grants, and share the excitement of so many colleagues across the state that this funding will advance Indianas leadership in understanding neurological injury and its rehabilitation, Malec added.

A community collaboration between Clarian Health and St. Vincent Health, Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana (www.rhin.com) opened its doors in January 1992 as one of the largest freestanding rehabilitation hospitals in the Midwest. It provides inpatient acute services, and outpatient and vocational rehabilitation services for adults with spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, strokes, amputations, orthopedic conditions, neuromuscular diseases, burns and related disabilities. RHIs Sports Program, which is recognized as among the best in the country, serves hundreds of people with disabilities every year.

WHAT: Have Time off during the day?  Looking for a fun new way to get your exercise?  Try this great opportunity brought to you by RHI Sports and Indianapolis Community Tennis Association to receive hands-on tennis instruction and training!

WHO: All RHI adult athletes.  Players of different skill levels are welcome whether you are a beginner looking to learn or an advanced player looking to hone your skills.

WHEN: Every Tuesday starting November 18th, 10:00a.m. - 12:00p.m.

PLACE: Butler University Tennis Bubble, located due north of Hinkle Fieldhouse.

                         Hinkle Fieldhouse:

510 W. 49th StreetIndianapolis, IN 46208

Follow Boulevard Drive to the intersection of 52^nd St. and head west until you see the Butler Bubble.

RSVP: Please contact Pat Dean to inform us of your interest! You can email him at pat.dean@rhin.com or call 317-329-2281.  Hope to see you there!

As posted by: Kevin Hughes

Prep and Varsity Turnstone Flyers wheelchair basketball teams battle in 1st away tournament

For the second straight weekend the Prep Turnstone Flyers split round robin games to extend season record 4-4. Yesterday (Dec. 13, 2008) at the Midwest Conference Round Robin in Southfield, MI the Flyers were able to control tempo in wins over the Michigan Thunderbirds and RHI Mini-Pacers; however, struggled in losses against the Grand Rapids Jr. Pacers and Sterling Heights Challengers.

Prep Flyers Results:

Game 1: Flyers 12    Michigan Thunderbirds 2

Game 2: Flyers 15    Grand Rapids Jr. Pacers 17

Game 3: Flyers 12    Sterling Heights Challengers 24

Game 4: Flyers 24    RHI Mini-Pacers 10

Prep Flyers Individual Stats:

Robert Burns: 14 rebounds, 3 steals, and 4 points

Alex Leckron: 5 rebounds, 5 steals, and 14 points

Lazero Rodriguez: 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 4 steals, 4 points

Michael Porter: showing progress in 1st season

Jordan Thompson: 16 rebounds, 4 steals, 10 points

Molly Welfle: 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal

Tyler Sarrazine: Unfortunately stats don’t show his strong defensive play

Nina Welfle: 19 rebounds, 1 block, 3 assist, 7 steals, and 31 points

Prep Flyers next Tournament: GLASA Claddagh Tournament Saturday, January 24, 2009 @ St Xavier University

The Varsity Turnstone Flyers loose first game of young season….

At the Saturday, December 13, 2008 Midwest Conference Round Robin in Southfield, MI the Varsity Turnstone Flyers wheelchair basketball team were able to defeat the Michigan Thunderbirds and Grand Rapids Jr. Pacers; however, had a tough time in the loss to the Sterling Heights Challengers.

Varsity Flyers Current Record: 6-1

Varsity Flyers Next Tournament: Midwest Regional January 3 & 4, 2009 in Whitewater, WI

 Talkin Sports this Sat. Dec. 20

Jim Shovlin, the host of Talkin’ Sports, has invited Kevin Hughes back on his radio show this Saturday, December 20, 2008 to talk about what’s happening in adaptive sports in the Fort Wayne area. You can listen to Talkin’ Sports every Saturday morning on FM100 Talks! WNUY-100.1FM for 90 minutes starting at 10:30am. Learn more at http://www.wnuy.com/talkinsports.html or www.myspace.com/talkinsportsy100

Benefits to help new inclusive sport at McMillen Ice Arena

Fort Wayne, IN : A silent auction to benefit Fort Wayne ’s newest sport is being held at the MAC Ice Arena. Proceeds will provide youth and adults with disabilities an opportunity to participate in sled hockey. The MAC is home to Indiana ’s first sled hockey team and their upcoming Bob Chase Frostbite Sled Hockey Tournament February 14-15, 2009.

The following items are on display at the MAC through December 20^th at 6pm:

       Album signed by Chicago

      Doobie Brothers signed Telecaster

       Be a professional wrestling manager

       Be a Komet reporter for a day

       Komet team signed jersey

       Komet team signed pennant

      Learn to drive the Zamboni (must be 18 to win this item)

      Dinner at a Fort Wayne firehouse

       Mayor of Marion , IN for a day

       Dinner at Casa’s with Guy Dupuis (4 people plus Guy)

       Magic Show by Terry Owens

       1992 “Dream Team” Kellogg’s promotional jacket

       Ray Crowe biography signed by Crowe, Oscar Robinson and others

       Saxophone Quartet performance at your event

       Behind the scenes tour of TV Channel 15

       A hockey-themed fleece blanket

       A collection of cool stuff from the Fort Wayne Derby Girls

The sport of sled hockey has been eagerly embraced by officials at the MAC, Fort Wayne Youth Hockey, Turnstone and the League for the Blind and Disabled. These organizations have been involved in building community support to make this program a success. Over the past six months, 15 sleds have been donated to the program and funders are coming forward to help continue the tournament.

For those familiar with wheelchair basketball and tennis, sled hockey is similar in that it is a great sport for youth and adults, and men and women. Sled hockey got its start in Sweden during the 1960’s when two men with disabilities wanted to continue playing hockey. The equipment hasn’t changed much since then – players sit in sleds with two blades on the bottom. They propel and maneuver themselves with two short hockey sticks, curved on one end with short ice picks on the other end. For more information visit www.mcmillenicearena.org  or call the Ice Arena at 427-6769. 

SSA initiative sidesteps backlog - for some cases.

As posted at:www.news-sentinel.com 

By Jennifer L. Boen

of The News-Sentinel

With the current backlog, a Fort Wayne area resident applying for Social Security disability benefits will wait, on average, 604 days for a hearing before an administrative law judge who decides whether the person qualifies for disability benefits.As of Oct. 31, 18,843 Hoosiers were waiting for disability determination hearings, including 5,414 in Fort Wayne, said Doug Nguyen, project manager for the public affairs office of the Chicago office of the Social Security Administration (SSA).Social Security Commissioner Michael Astruesaid at a December 2007 hearing, “People have died waiting for a hearing. This is America, and it is simply not acceptable for Americans to wait years for a final decision on a claim.”That is why SSA recently initiated Compassionate Allowances, a fast-track benefit-approval program for people with certain medical conditions. Initially, 25 rare diseases and 25 forms of cancer are on the list, and more conditions will be added later. For individuals who meet one of the Compassionate Allowances criteria, disability determination could change from years to as short as a week, SSA officials say.Among the 50 conditions on the Compassionate Allowances initial list are: breast cancer with distant metastases, meaning it has spread to other organs or parts of the body, and inflammatory breast cancer; acute leukemia; inoperable kidney cancer; gallbladder cancer; two types of spinal muscular atrophy; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’sdisease); and Farber’s disease, a metabolic disorder.Mary Dunkle, public information officer with the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), says the organization and its member groups representing thousands of diseases or genetic conditions applaud the SSA for developing the program and hope to see the Compassionate Allowances list grow in the near future.“There are almost 7,000 rare diseases or disorders,” Dunkle said, many that the SSA should accept as “no-brainers” for approval for benefits. “What (the SSA) told us is that this is definitely a work in progress,” Dunkle said of the new program.Compassionate Allowances is the second fast-track program SSA has started. Quick Disability Determination (QDD) went into effect in the fall of 2007. QDD uses a “predictive model” that analyzes criteria to identify claims where there is high potential that the claimant is disabled and where evidence of the disability allegations can be quickly and easily obtained, Nguyen said. Compassionate Allowances, on the other hand, does not use predictive model and focuses on specific diagnoses.“All that is needed is confirmation from the medical source,” he said.SSA has also started video hearings and has changed from paper files to electronic files; and last year, “We cleared out all cases that were at least 900 days old,” Nguyen said.It’s too early for SSA to have data on the Compassionate Allowances program, but other efforts to expedite hearings and approvals have shown results. Nearly 1,000 people in Indiana had their cases heard or were approved under QDD between Aug. 31 and Oct. 31.The Fort Wayne-based disability advocacy group Fifth Freedom has been informing people about Compassionate Allowances.“Unfortunately, the conditions on the list are fairly rare. We haven’t had anyone with the conditions who is on the program contact us,” said Doug Schmidt, coordinator for the ACT (Advocacy Coordination Team) at Fifth Freedom. “I think as the program expands, we’ll probably get more feedback.”Bob Walsh, public information officer for the SSA’s South Bend office, which oversees the Fort Wayne SSA office, said the backlog in hearings is two-sided: “The number of administrative law judges has not been increased, while the number of disability claims (has) almost tripled since back in the 1990s.” The SSA has been waiting for the authority and funding to hire more administrative law judges.Meanwhile, NORD is receiving calls from people whose medical conditions are not now on the list and who are inquiring when they might be, Dunkle said.On Nov. 18, the SSA held hearings involving advocacy groups, patients and medical experts to gather information on brain injuries and stroke, which will likely be among the next conditions included in Compassionate Allowances.“The Social Security Administration has always done a good job in getting extreme disability cases awarded quickly. Although there are still huge SSDI backlog problems around the country, the Compassionate Allowances initiative is a serious effort to expedite the most severe disability claims,” said Dan Allsup. His company, Allsup, is the nation’s largest non-attorney Social Security Disability Insurance representation organization.“This initiative includes disabled veterans returning home from war with traumatic brain injuries. The SSA has been making these cases a priority, and Allsup recognizes the agency’s efforts,” he said.

Learn more

♦To learn more about the new Compassionate Allowances Social Security Disability program aimed at expediting benefit approval for people with specific diseases or disorders, check out www.socialsecurity.gov/.

♦For information on applying for Social Security Disability benefits or for other resources for people with disabilities, call Fifth Freedom at 426-8789 or visit www.fifthfreedom.org.

December 15, 2006 is the last day to roster a team or add a player.  For transferring players to produce proof of residency to the commissioner players must have played two games.

As posted at: www.journalgazette.net

Diana Cornwell is pleased to hear about changes to the welfare eligibility process, but they don’t erase the fact that a problem-plagued system eliminated her food stamp assistance for three months this year, sending the single mother of three to a food bank.

Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2000 and unable to work since 2004, Cornwell is set for a welfare recertification interview on Tuesday, when a call center employee is supposed to contact her between 2 and 4 p.m. If she misses the call or the employee doesn’t call, she fears it could trigger the same problems she experienced last summer, when she had to use money earmarked for utility bills to buy food. As a result, her gas service was disconnected.

Cornwell’s experience isn’t rare, unfortunately. Since Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration began rolling out the so-called welfare modernization, stories of missed phone interviews, lost paperwork and dropped benefits have become legion. They are undoubtedly a factor in the demand on area food pantries and soup kitchens.

Changes announced last week should reduce those problems. FSSA will streamline the eligibility process by reducing the number of questions on the application form and by eliminating some follow-up interview requirements. Food stamp recipients will be interviewed once a year instead of every six months. Clients with disabilities, like Cornwell, will be interviewed once every two years, as will seniors.

“These are great improvements on paper,” Rep. Suzanne Crouch, R-Evansville, told the Associated Press. “But we need to make sure they are improving the actual process.”

Dan Skinner, a Frankton resident who volunteers his time helping clients who lose their benefits, was more skeptical.

“Yes, it will help,” he said. “But it doesn’t get at the core problem of an antiquated computer system and of personnel not equipped to help.”

Skinner said hospitals, nursing homes and social service agencies have employees “working their hearts out to get help for people.”

In 2007, the state signed a $1.6 billion, 10-year contract with IBM Corp. and Affiliated Computer Services to implement the call center system and Web application program, mostly replacing the caseworkers in county offices. The system, which has been rolled out in all but 33 counties, works for some of the 1.1 million welfare clients, but it has been especially troublesome for older residents and those with cognitive disabilities that make it difficult to navigate a phone system or Web site.

The changes are expected to reduce the number of phone interviews with aid recipients by 32,000 a month. That will ease the bottleneck and reduce the opportunity for lost information, but it still leaves vulnerable Hoosiers at the mercy of call center workers who appear to be overwhelmed or unauthorized to help.

“I miss my caseworker. It’s nice having someone actually be nice to you,” said Cornwell, a Fort Wayne resident.

The FSSA employee formerly assigned to her from the state’s Rudisill Boulevard office had a disability himself and seemed to demonstrate empathy for her struggles. By contrast, she had to plead her case last summer to a call center worker who tersely told her she was going to have to be patient because “there are a lot of people in this situation.”

An FSSA spokeswoman said last week that the changes weren’t made in response to complaints from lawmakers but were just a part of the “ongoing development of the system.”

In the upcoming session, legislators should be prepared to speak more loudly to ensure that FSSA comes up with more than a Band-Aid fix to a system that is likely to continue shortchanging needy Hoosiers until its fundamental flaws are addressed.

United States Power Soccer Association Announces

USPSA NOW PROVIDING MEMBERSHIP INSURANCE

Carmel, IN - December 2, 2008 - USPSA is now offering accidental insurance coverage as well as liability insurance to all teams. All rostered   athletes and coaches will be covered for one fee. Referees will also have the option of purchasing individual coverage.

The new insurance will be available to each USPSA registered team at a cost of $135.00 per team and will cover teams for one year. This coverage includes up to twelve athletes and four staff members per team. This coverage in most cases will be a cost savings compared to the per person cost previously offered.

Coverage will cover all team practices, local games, tournaments, fundraising events related to power soccer, and clinics performed by your athletes/coaches to promote the sport of power soccer. 

If coverage is needed for your practice and tournament facilities you will be able to obtain a Certificate of Insurance Form on our website. It will then be submitted to the secretary at  USPSA.secretary@yahoo.com. 

Insurance sign-up forms and Certificate of Insurance requests for events and facilities are available on the USPSA website under downloads. Please allow 14 days for Certificates of Insurance. Only teams who have purchased their insurance through USPSA are eligible for certificates of insurance.

COVERAGE UNDER THIS PROGRAM INCLUDES:

Commercial General Liability: coverage which protects the uninsured against liability claims for bodily injury and property damage arising out of premise, operations, products and completed operations, and personal and advertising injury. No deductible applies to liability claims.

Legal Liability to participants- coverage which offers protection against bodily injury liability claims brought by persons participating in covered sports activities.

Professional Liability: provides protection against claims that arise out of the rendering , or the failure to render; instruction, demonstration, direction and/or advice related to the sports activity.

Medical Payments for participants: coverage which pays the medical and dental expenses incurred by participant when an accidental injury occurs while participating in a covered sports activity. The coverage is provided on an excess basis, responding after all other medical coverage available to participant has been exhausted. If no other medical coverage exists, the coverage becomes the primary. A $250.00 deductible applies to each claim, and the benefit period is two years from the date of the accident.

COVERAGE  EXCLUDES;

Abuse or molestation, amusement devices, asbestos, baby-sitting. child care services, carnivals and festivals, climbing walls, concerts, 24 hour premise liability, dunk tanks, employment-related practices, events involving gambling, (ie bingo, casino nights, poker, Texas Hold’em Tournament), events where alcohol is furnished or served, fireworks, fungo or bacteria, haunted attractions, lead, nuclear energy, Operation or ownership of a sports facility, outside vendors/concessionaires in conjunction with your organization, pollution, sports events/activities involving participants in sports other than those reported and for whom a premium has been paid, transportation of athletes or participants.

COVERAGE AND LIMITS;

Each Occurrence                                                            $1,000,000

General Aggregate                                                         $2,000,000

Products-completed operations aggregate                        $1,000,000

Personal & Advertising Injury                                          $1,000,000

Damage to premise rented to you                                      $300,000

Medical Expenses, other than participants                              $5,000

Professional Liability                                                      $1,000,000

Legal Liability to participants                                           $1000,000

Medical Payments for participants(excess) $250 ded.            $25,000

TEAMS CAN NOW UMBRELLA UNDER USPSA for 501(C) 3 STATUS

USPSA is now offering members in good standing who do not have non-profit status to raise funds for their team or power soccer program through USPSA.

This service will allow teams to solicite donations and sponsorship requests to corporations and other large donors who require the 501 (c) 3 status.

Donations can be made to USPSA and earmarked to the specific team. All funds will be deposited to the USPSA account and will be dispersed upon request with appropriate check request or reinbursement forms. 

The USPSA will manage each individual team account,generate the donor thank you letter, monthly team statements, end of year report and the tax filings.This service will be available for a 5% fee.

Participation, check reimbursement and check request forms can all be found on our website under downloads. 

We hope  you will take avantage of this valuable service. It will allow you to raise funds for your team and at the same time offer your donors all the tax benefits!