Project Areas

• Home
• Mission
• CAC
• Partners
• Links
• Calendar
• Products
• News
• Staff
• Contact

News

Disability Awareness and Law Enforcement

On January 29th, 2008 Brian Sterner, a 32 year-old Tampa man who was injured in a 1994 wrestling accident, was dumped out of his wheel chair by a Hillsborough County Sherriff Office’s (HCSO) Deputy. This incident occurred while Mr. Sterner was being booked at Hillsborough County’s Orient Street Jail for a traffic violation. The Deputy instructed Mr. Sterner to stand so that she could frisk him. Mr. Sterner informed the Deputy that he had quadriplegia and was unable to stand the Deputy dumped Mr. Sterner out of his wheel chair onto the floor and proceeded to search his pockets and clothing. The HCSO denounced this deployable incident when the video taping from a surveillance camera was released to the press. A national outcry of anger and consternation followed the airing of the video on national cable news and the internet. The Training Division of the HCSO contacted the Florida Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities (P & A) which in turn contacted the Florida Center for Inclusive Communities (FCIC) – UCEDD to seek assistance in this matter. The FCIC has been collaborating with the Advocacy Center and the HCSO Training Division to identify gaps in the training of their Deputies and work on developing an assessment process regarding training needs in the area of disability awareness and sensitivity. In so doing, we research existing training materials, resources, and curricula in the area of disability awareness and law enforcement. We have compiled a listing of the existing materials in the attached PDF document. This should not be considered to be an endorsement of any of these materials - it is simply a compilation of materials found related to this issue at this date. This listing was compiled on 4/30/2008.

Florida Office on Disability and Health

A collaboration with researchers at the University of Florida (Dr. Elena Andresen, Principal Investigator) has resulted in a $1.6 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to establish a Florida Office on Disability and Health. FCIC will direct a healthcare parity project with the goal of increasing the capacity of health care providers in Florida to provide quality healthcare to persons with disabilities. Under the direction of the Department of Child and Family Studies’ and Florida Center for Inclusive Communities UCEDD’s Susan Havercamp, Ph.D., the project will provide disability training to medical students and continuing education training to medical and allied health professionals across the state.

Dr. Havercamp’s project is entitled “Towards Healthcare Parity for Floridians with Disabilities: Teaching Core Competence in Disability to Healthcare Providers.” This project will teach core competence in disability to professionals and paraprofessionals in Florida to build the capacity of health care providers to respond to the health care needs of individuals with disabilities. We will work with faculty members in the department of medicine at University of South Florida to enhance their clinical curriculum to provide disability training to 600 students enrolled in the 3rd year of medical school and to measure the growth in knowledge, aptitude, comfort and attitude in providing treatment to individuals with disabilities. In addition, we will disseminate the field-tested core competence in disability curriculum and implementation guide to other interested programs for integration into their clinical training. We also propose to work with the Florida Area Health Education Center Network to provide continuing education training on disability to 500 health care providers over the five years of this project. These training initiatives will expose students to disability issues and build core competence in intellectual, sensory, and physical disabilities.

The overall goal of this project is to increase the capacity of health care providers in Florida to provide quality healthcare to persons with disabilities. Towards this goal, we propose to establish and evaluate a core competence in disability by providing disability training to medical students and continuing education training to medical and allied health professionals across the state.

Four specific elements are critical to core competence in disability:

1. Knowledge of disability: common disabling conditions, disability-specific health issues, and living with a disability;
2. Aptitude: patient-centered care, respectful communication, accommodations needed to meet the healthcare needs of individuals with disabilities;
3. Attitude: attitude towards individuals with disabilities
4. Comfort: student ease and comfort interacting with and serving persons with disabilities Contact Susan M. Havercamp, Ph.D. for more information.

U.S. Department of Labor Awards Florida $1.2 million to increase self-employment opportunities for persons with developmental disabilities

The Self-Employment for Adults and Youth with Disabilities Research and Technical Assistance Grant will fund pilot projects and research to develop systems models designed to increase self-employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities.

The project has been developed in coordination with Workforce Florida, Inc., Agency for Persons with Disabilities, Florida Department of Education, Division for Vocational Rehabilitation, University of South Florida's University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Griffin-Hammis & Associates, LLC, and the National Disability Institute. All of these partners, with their individual foci and expertise, will work together to address a special need and create a positive impact for both workers with disabilities and their communities.

The partners will evaluate three demonstration models currently being used in Florida for self employment and entrepreneurial activities, expand technical assistance and training opportunities for interagency staff that serve persons with disabilities, and identify barriers and challenges to implementation of these models. In addition, best practices and strategies to overcome these barriers will be identified. Three sites in Jacksonville, Lakeland and Ft. Lauderdale/Miami have been selected for intensive training and technical assistance and will serve as incubators for further expansion of the models. The grant is effective through September 2009.

3.5 Million Awarded to Establish Center for Early Intervention

Two USF Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute (FMHI) Research Professors have secured a five-year, $3.5 million award from the US Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to establish a national center for improving the social, emotional, and behavioral functioning of young children with or at risk for developmental delays or disabilities. Drs. Lise Fox and Glen Dunlap from FMHI's Department of Child & Family Studies will serve as principal and co-principal investigators of the Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Young Children.

Center activities will build on considerable momentum and partnerships previously established. A team of professionals from five universities will continue and expand on technical assistance efforts funded previously by the OSEP. Partners include the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, Vanderbilt University, Georgetown University and the University of Kansas.

“OSEP recognizes that providers, policymakers, and other early childhood experts are becoming increasingly aware of the need for early intervention to support healthy social-emotional development in young children,” said Fox. “Our existing knowledge of the supports and guidance needed for young children with or at risk of disabilities and their families, combined with new knowledge gained from future Center activities, will help OSEP achieve their goal of providing effective early intervention programs.

The Center will promote the social development of young children and improve early intervention results by providing training and technical assistance, guiding and evaluating model demonstrations, and disseminating information on effective practices. During the next five years, Center staff will:

1. Leverage resources by conducting collaborative training and technical assistance with relevant national centers and organizations.
2. Develop, train and coordinate a cadre of trainers and coaches that are competent to deliver training and support on evidence-based practices and the Pyramid Model of Prevention and Intervention.
3. Maintain ongoing communication with family consumers and ensure their input into all Center products and practices.
4. Coordinate efforts with other federally funded TA Centers to maximize effects.
5. Establish ongoing evaluation systems for all major Center functions and make course corrections as needed.
6. Maintain a website that offers up-to-date information for multiple consumers: parents, providers, administrators, policy makers, and provides web-based TA and training opportunities.

For additional information, contact Lise Fox (813)974-6100 or fox@fmhi.usf.edu. The following web site provides more information relevant to this topic www.challengingbehavior.org