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AUTISM FIRST STEPS
AUTISM DAILY NEWSLETTER
Monday December 17, 2001
INDEX:
* Those with Asperger's syndrome need your
help
* Judge upholds decision to keep boy without vaccine out of school
* Family, state settle lawsuit for $2.7M
* Mental
help line might be closed
* Jury acquits two officers
of using excessive force against autistic
suspect
* Developmental Aspects of Psychostimulant
Treatment in Children and
Adolescents With
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
******************************
Those with Asperger's
syndrome need your help
There is something strange about him; but you cannot quite put your finger on
what is wrong. You have a good memory; but he never forgets anything you have
done together. He remembers where you ate lunch ten years ago today and how
much the bill came to. You enjoyed Some Like it Hot; he is obsessed with
it, he talks about it all the time. You like a joke; but he takes everything
you say seriously and you have to be very careful in case your teasing offends
him. You both have a university degree and yours has helped you into a good,
steady job. He can only find poorly paid manual work. He keeps losing his job
and he always finds it hard to get another. His parents seem so outgoing, so
charming, so normal. It is difficult to understand how their son turned out to
be so odd, such a misfit. At the National Autistic Society, however, they
understand well enough. They have seen thousands of children and young people
like him. They know that he has Asperger’s syndrome, in other words that he has
a form of autism, and that it is very common. Those suffering from Asperger’s
syndrome may not have the same language or learning difficulties as other sufferers
from autism. They may be able to attend normal schools, go to university and
get jobs. Yet their condition still makes life very difficult. They cannot
communicate properly with other people, cannot share their jokes or show
imagination. The other members of the society they try to participate in often
shun them, ridicule them, even bully them. That is why the tireless work of the
National Autistic Society is so important. It is also one of the reasons that The
Times has nominated the society as the beneficiary of this year’s Christmas
Appeal. Helping parents obtain a diagnosis of their children’s condition as
early as possible, putting pressure on local authorities to recognise special
needs, helping schools cope with pupils they might not even understand and
explaining the nature and effects of Asperger’s syndrome to sufferers and
parents and friends, is all in a day’s work for the society. This is work that
nobody else is doing. Very frequently parents and sufferers find there is no
one else they can turn to. For the society, there is nobody else to turn to
except generous donors. There is no better time of the year to be generous.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,56-2001574984,00.html
******************************
Judge upholds decision to keep boy without
vaccine out of school
By Associated Press, 12/13/2001 20:28
MORRISTOWN, N.J. (AP) A Superior Court judge has upheld a school district's
decision to keep a sixth-grader out of class because he hasn't been vaccinated
for Hepatitis B. Superior Court Judge Kenneth MacKenzie dismissed a petition by
11-year-old Zachary Shaftan's parents to reinstate their son to Sparta Middle
School. The decision was dated Thursday. The boy was suspended Nov. 2 after he
did not receive the first in a series of three inoculations. His parents,
Richard and Donna Shaftan, believe the vaccination rule violates their son's
rights and is unnecessary, unrelated to education and invasive. The Shaftans
said they plan to appeal MacKenzie's decision. The regulation, which took
effect in September, requires vaccinations for all children who were born in or
after 1990 and are entering sixth grade. The Hepatitis B virus is transmitted
through blood products, bodily fluids and needle pricks, and can lead to chronic
liver disease, cirrhosis and liver cancer.
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/347/region/Judge_upholds_decision_to_keep:.shtml
******************************
Family, state settle lawsuit for $2.7M
By
CAROLYNN McLUSKEY
Helena IR Staff HELENA — In what may be the largest settlement in a negligence
case against the state, a Missoula couple is slated to receive about $2.7
million to help care for their severely developmentally disabled child for the
duration of his life.
The settlement follows a ruling by District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock
Wednesday that the State of Montana is responsible for the fact that the baby
boy adopted by Mike and Kristin Maxwell in 1989 was born with developmental
disabilities including autism.
Expert testimony offered to the court by the Maxwells indicated that a child
born from an autistic woman is likely to possess the same developmental
disabilities as his or her mother — an expert opinion the state was unprepared
to refute, Sherlock said.
“There is no higher settlement with the state that I know about,” said Monte
Beck, one of the attorneys for the Maxwells.
However, the true blessing, he said, is that the Maxwells’ 12-year-old son will
have the medication and care he needs to live a happy and productive life.
“We’re very proud the state did the right thing,” Beck said.
The Maxwells filed a lawsuit in Helena District Court in February 2000
demanding that the state pay for the past and future care of their son relating
to his severe developmental disabilities.
The boy was the offspring of a 42-year-old resident of the Montana
Developmental Center who was raped in 1988 by Lloyd Dean Drummond, one of her
caregivers at the state-run facility. The rape victim was described as being
mentally and physically handicapped, unable to communicate or care for herself.
In 1989, the woman gave birth to the child, who was later adopted by the
Maxwells through Catholic Charities on assurances that the boy did not share
the same conditions that affected his mother. At the age of 3, however, the
child began to exhibit signs he had inherited the disorders.
According to a pretrial order filed in the Maxwell case, the state acknowledged
that its negligence was the cause of the rape and pregnancy of the MDC resident
as a result of its hiring of Drummond to work at the facility.
However, state lawyers denied that that state was responsible for the fact the
boy possessed the disabilities of his mother.
That argument went out the window in the second day of the trial, which began
Tuesday, with Sherlock’s decision, taking out the major stumbling block on the
path for lawyers for the state and the Maxwells to reach a settlement, Beck
said.
Although a professional life care planner hired by the Maxwells estimated that
the ongoing medical and psychological care, in addition to the financial burden
of assisted living care, would cost between $4.5 million and $10 million, the
Maxwells are satisfied the $2.7 million will meet his needs, he said.
Steve Harman, one of the state’s attorneys, said the benefits of the settlement
go beyond the care of the Maxwells’ child.
“The state is satisfied to finally resolve this difficult case which has been
pending for many years,” he said. “The money will benefit the disabled child.
Upon the child’s death, any money remaining will revert to a foundation to
benefit other disabled children.”
The paperwork in the case should be finalized and signed by the judge within
the month, Beck said. At that time, more details about the administration of
the funds and foundation will become available.
Bill Gianoulias, chief legal counsel for the state’s Division of Risk
Management and Tort Defense, declined Thursday to comment on how the monetary
resolution of the Maxwell case ranks among other settlements with the state.
Some high-dollar settlements reached with the state in recent years include:
The family of Helena murder victim Tamara Pengra will receive about $800,000
through direct payments from the state and from an annuity purchased by the
state on behalf of the Pengras as part of a settlement in a negligence case. In
that case, the Pengra family sued the state for improperly supervising Russell
Rex VanKirk, a probationer who ultimately killed Pengra as she went to work at
State Nursery in 1995.
Washington resident April McCarty and the family of her friend, Kimberly
Starkenburg, were awarded a combined $860,000 by a Helena jury for the state's
negligence in its supervision of Montana parolee Charles Corliss in 1995. The
plaintiffs in that case sued the state for improperly supervising Corliss who
shot Starkenburg to death and injured McCarty and Brenda Mahoni at one of the
women's Washington home.
Former Swan River Boot Camp employee Donna Weeks received $600,000 and a
$300,000 annuity policy as part of a settlement with the state last year. Weeks
— who was severely beaten by boot camp trusty Rodney Sattler — sued the state
for negligence for allowing violent criminals to move with relative freedom at
the facility.
http://www.montanaforum.com/rednews/2001/12/14/build/accountability/adopted.php?nnn=5
******************************
Mental help line might be closed
By
Alice Dembner, Globe Staff, 12/12/2001
small state agency charged with safeguarding the legal rights of poor people
with mental illness or mental retardation may close its help lines because of
state budget cuts, the director said yesterday.
For more than 25 years, the Mental Health Legal Advisers Committee of the
Supreme Judicial Court has provided free legal help to thousands of people in
state and private institutions. But director Frank Laski said a $70,000 cut in
the agency's $570,000 budget, coming halfway through the fiscal year, would
cause him to lay off about half his small legal staff.''I seriously doubt
whether we can continue to fulfill our statutory mandate,'' Laski said.Among
those worried about the effects of the cut are Bill and Joann Darnell of
Medford, whose daughter Heather suffers from mental retardation and chronic
depression. Heather, 20, spent months in a psychiatric unit because state
officials refused to pay for her to move to a group home, according to her
family.After Mental Health Legal Advisers intervened, Heather was moved into a
temporary group home last month. The lawyers are still pressing for a permanent
residential placement.''Heather would probably still be locked up if it wasn't
for them,'' said Bill Darnell. ''We can't afford to lose advocates like
them.''Laski said he is faced with cutting some of his seven full- and
part-time staff members.If the Legislature doesn't restore the cuts, Laski said
the remaining staff would give priority to three class-action suits on behalf
of institutionalized patients who need community services and to about 25 other
cases such as Heather's that are in process. But they would stop taking new
calls for help with such issues as guardianship and discrimination.''It's one
of the safeguards for people with mental illness to protect their civil
liberties,'' said Tobias Fisher, executive director of the Massachusetts
chapter of the Alliance for the Mentally Ill. ''It's a short-sighted cut for
very meager savings.''This story ran on page B6 of the Boston Globe on
12/12/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/346/metro/Mental_help_line_might_be_closed+.shtml
******************************
Jury
acquits two officers of using excessive force against autistic suspect
A federal jury deliberated nearly 10 hours over two days and acquitted two
Bellefontaine Neighbors police officers of kicking an autistic man who had
been suspected of taking a woman's purse.
Tearful relatives of the officers hugged them after jurors returned the
not guilty verdicts Friday in U.S. District Court. The officers, Gary
Bequette and Kevin Rehg, said they hoped for reinstatement. They have been
suspended without pay for six months.
A federal indictment had accused Bequette, 60, and Rehg, 41, of using
excessive force in an incident Dec. 20, 1999, outside the Pizza Hut on
Bellefontaine Road near Interstate 270.
They were among seven Bellefontaine Neighbors and St. Louis County
officers who responded to an "officer in need" call after the
autistic man,
Christopher Currinder, struggled with two arresting officers, who had
arrived at the scene before the defendants.
The Justice Department said Rehg and Bequette kicked Currinder, 38, of
Overland, after he was handcuffed. In addition, Bequette tampered with a
witness by telling the man not to discuss what he had seen, the government
claimed.
Currinder suffered a cracked rib in the incident.
The jury of six men and six women found the officers not guilty of all
the charges. One juror, Mike Golden of De Soto, said jurors found
inconsistencies in the testimony of witnesses on both sides.
In the end, the government was unable to show beyond a reasonable doubt
that the officers were guilty, Golden added.
As they left the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse, Bequette and Rehg
said they were grateful for the jury's verdicts. Rehg called the incident
with Currinder "just a big misunderstanding, a mistake."
Police released Currinder after they realized his mental condition and
determined he had not taken a purse. The woman who reported the theft
called police later to say that she had found her purse at home.
This is just another story that shows that we need to train our police officers
to recognize and better handle individuals with autism.
******************************
Developmental
Aspects of Psychostimulant Treatment in Children and Adolescents With
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
ROBERT L. FINDLING, M.D. ; ELIZABETH J.
SHORT, PH.D. ; MICHAEL J. MANOS, PH.D
Dr. Findling is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Case Western
Reserve University (CWRU)/University Hospitals of Cleveland. Dr. Short is
Associate Professor of Psychology, CWRU. Dr. Manos is Director of the ADHD
Center at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF CHILD & ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY
2001;40:1441-1447
ABSTRACT Objectives: To examine the relationship between age and short-term
clinical response to psychostimulant treatment in youths with
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and to examine whether
weight-corrected doses of optimized psychostimulant therapy varied as a
function of patient age. Method: One hundred seventy-seven patients were
treated with either methylphenidate (MPH) or Adderall ® (ADL). Sixty-six youths
received ADL and 111 patients were treated with MPH. All youths were evaluated
at baseline and after receiving a week of treatment at each blinded, randomized
dose level (placebo, 5, 10, or 15 mg). A “best dose” for each patient was
assigned before the medication blind was broken. Behavioral ratings by both teachers
and parents were examined for dose and medication effects. Results: The
medications had similar efficacy in children and teenagers. Older youths,
however, benefited from a smaller weight-adjusted dose of medication than did
the younger children. Similar efficacy was observed between the medications.
Conclusions: These data suggest that psychostimulants are equally effective in
treating children and adolescents with ADHD. Adolescents with ADHD may not
necessarily require more medication than younger children to achieve a similar
therapeutic response.
Key Words: methylphenidate ; Adderall ; attention-deficit/hyperactivity
disorder
http://ipsapp003.lwwonline.com/servlet/GetFileServlet?J=2600&I=87&A=15&U=1&T=0
******************************
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