Published: Monday, March 11, 2013, 12:46a.m. Updated 3 hours ago Patrick Lah is good at his job as a janitor at the local Giant Eagle. But he doesn't know his supervisor's name, he isn't sure how to ask for days off and, even if he wanted to be promoted, he would say he's perfectly happy with his current job. As an adult with autism, Lah, 23, is stuck in a Catch-22. He wants to work and be involved in his community, but he's having trouble accessing social services that would provide him with behavioral counseling and job training he needs to succeed. I'm pretty well educated and on-the-ball and I have the ability to follow up on these things, said Carolyn Lah, Patrick's mother and a Freeport Area High School English teacher. You can get there, but it takes a long time and a lot of follow-up. I don't know how people do it who have other things on their plate and aren't as good at working the system. The social and communication challenges associated with autism affect all aspects of job seeking, including interviewing, creating a resume and filling out applications. That's according to the Pennsylvania Autism Needs Assessment, … Continue reading →

Published: Saturday, March 9, 2013 at 11:03 p.m. Last Modified: Sunday, March 10, 2013 at 7:28 a.m. As the number of children with autism grew in the 1990s and 2000s, Florida parents pressured the state Legislature to require employer-funded insurance policies to pay for behavioral treatments and loosen the requirements for Medicaid coverage. For parents of children with autism, applied behavior analysis (ABA) is considered the gold standard for helping their children learn to fit into the world. The treatment is marked by intensive work that, in essence, rewards good behavior and ignores bad. In 2008, Florida became the fourth state to mandate coverage. But there's a problem: While ABA therapists can be found in some larger Florida cities, large swaths of the state have no one with the proper training. "How tremendously frustrating it is to finally get the coverage, and then not find anyone who could do the therapy," says Sharon Boyd of Port Charlotte, whose son Austin, 13, was found to be autistic a decade ago. "It's like they decided to cover it, but didn't put a system in place to provide it." Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 1 in 88 children … Continue reading →

Stroke Clinic Drills .... By: Patrick Malaga … Continue reading →

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) The future is unclear for a promising heart device aimed at preventing strokes in people at high risk of them because of an irregular heartbeat. Early results from a key study of Boston Scientific Corp.'s Watchman device suggested it is safer than previous testing found, but may not be better than a drug that is used now for preventing strokes, heart-related deaths and blood clots in people with atrial fibrillation over the long term. More than 2.7 million Americans and 15 million people worldwide have atrial fibrillation. The upper chambers of the heart quiver instead of beating properly. That lets blood pool in a small pouch. Clots can form and travel to the brain, causing a stroke. The usual treatment is blood thinners such as warfarin, sold as Coumadin and other brands. But they have problems of their own and some are very expensive. The Watchman is intended to be a permanent solution that would not require people to take medications for the rest of their lives. It's a tiny expandable umbrella that plugs the pouch, and is inserted without surgery, through a tube pushed into a vein. A study four years ago suggested the device was … Continue reading →