SCI Network August 2005 Newsletter

Spinal Cord Injury Network

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SCI CONNECTOR August 2005

SCI NETWORK TO CO-HOST SECOND WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

The SCI Network and Adventist Rehabilitation Hospital of Maryland (formally Kessler-Adventist) in Rockville, Maryland, and the Adventist Rolling Knights will host a ten team Division III (D3) wheelchair basketball tournament at Maryland Soccerplex located in Boyds, Maryland, on Saturday & Sunday, October 1st and 2nd.

Hotels are very close to the facility (within two miles) at a cost well under $100, (with suites just over $100). We will provide a free lunch on Saturday and free beverages the entire tournament. The facility has eight basketball courts, so we will be able to get all games played in a fairly short period of time. We will have our usual free-throw and three-point shooting competitions and a Saturday evening get-together at the team hotel. All teams are guaranteed a minimum of four games.

You are invited to recommend an official if you'd like to bring one along for developmental purposes. Teams from New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, DC, and Maryland will be represented. The Adventist Rolling Knights, SCI Network’s team, will participate.

The Invitational Tournament is sponsored by Adventist Rehabilitation Hospital of Maryland, National Spinal Cord Injury Association, and Spinal Cord Injury Network. Registration for the tournament has begun. Tournament sponsors, teams wishing to enter, volunteers, and anyone looking for further information are encouraged to call 301-424-8335.

You need not have an SCI/D to play basketball. Many amputees, for instance, play wheelchair basketball. If you would like to know more about wheelchair basketball or about joining the Rolling Knights, or if you are interested in sponsoring or supporting the Rolling Knights, please visit our website at www.spinalcordinjury.net, or call 301-424-8335.

JOHN HOWARD MEMORIAL GOLF EVENT SCHEDULED

The SCI Network John Howard Memorial Golf Marathon will be held September 12, 2005 at the Langston Golf Course, and the planning is underway. Here is a chance for you to have a hand in the future of the Network’s programs and services by getting “up to par” on this event. The event this year will be planned by a Steering Committee consisting of Jesse Parker and Steve Towle of SCI Network; Ann Cody, a former Paralympian; Noel Jablonski, LPGA Golf Professional; Cindy Daniel a SCI Network friend and volunteer and Jan Seaman a former adapted physical educator. It’s a dynamite group.

This year's event is being managed by the American Association for Active Lifestyles and Fitness (AAALF) and the American Association for Leisure and Recreation (AALR) http://www.aaalf.org. Four committees have been formed, one of which might fit your skills.

•Volunteer recruitment, please email aecody@bakerd.com
•Sponsorships, please email jseaman@aahperd.org
•Golfer recruitment, please email jessep@iben.com
•Publicity, please email stevetowle@cs.com

If you have a chance to get out and about, here are a couple of things you could do to help:

Distribute golfer recruitment flyers to five courses in your community. We will have the flyers available in the SCIN office or if you call 800-213-7193 x 430, we will mail them to you.
How about adopting a golfer? If you aren’t a golfer, but want to help get pledges for people who sign up, we can help you do that. You will be given a pledge sheet with the golfer’s picture and a little bit about them.
You can take their pledge sheet around to all your friends and family members to collect pledges—we will collect the money after the event!
Plan to golf yourself. You don’t need to be a skilled golfer, but you do need to be passionate about helping SCIN raise $100,000 this year.

Call the 800 number above to see how you can help. SCI Network is the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. area chapter of the NSCIA. In existence over forty years, and incorporated as a 501[c][3] in DC, Maryland and Virginia since 1982, SCI Network’s mission is: To provide support and services to people with spinal cord injuries and other mobility impairing conditions, and to their families and friends.

TRAPPED QUAD SPEAKS ABOUT NURSING HOMES

By John Boyd, ADAPT Member

Kryptonite never made Superman die; complications from quadriplegia did. I am talking about Christopher Reeves and if we learned anything from his life, we would have learned that everyone is at risk of becoming disabled. After my accident at the age of fourteen, I learned more than I ever wanted to know. First, I learned how much I took for granted and after that; it was a continuing learning experience on how to compensate for what I had lost. Christopher Reeves was fortunate to have the recourses to provide for the care he needed. But, that is not true for most quadriplegics; after a short rehab stay, they may end up in a nursing home because the needed care is too expensive. And, did you know that young people with various disabilities are there? But from the disabled population, quadriplegics are more and more likely to be placed in a nursing home. I know, my first stay in a nursing home started at the age of twenty and ended when I was twenty-seven. My current nursing home stay started when I was forty-one and that was six years ago. I met many quadriplegics during these placements and I remember none of them wishing to stay in the nursing home system.

And if Paul Revere were alive today, I think his new warning would be: "The baby boomers are coming, the baby boomers are coming!" Yes, the population born after World War II is becoming old enough that illness and age may start them thinking about their long term cares needs and whether being placed in a nursing home is in the near future. When these two groups meet, I believe the system will bust.

There must be a change in the way we handle care for the people in need. As it is now, there is a large bias for warehousing people with significant disabilities in nursing homes. The nursing home lobby has ensured the government will continue to have Medicaid and Medicare pay out approximately $5,000 a month to house the sick, the elderly and the disabled. And yet, there are other options such as personal care waivers and purposed Federal Legislation such as MiCASSA - (Senate Bill S971, House Bill HR2032). These are two very reasonable alternatives to the current system. The MiCASSA proposal (Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act) has been before the American People since November of 1999. It came as an answer to the Olmstead decision; when the Supreme Court ruled that needless institutionalization was discrimination according to the ADA laws. I could bore you with endless facts and figures about the feasibility of personal care waivers, which pay for in home/apartment care verses nursing home care.

But what I would like for you to understand is that Medicaid is in more financial trouble than Social Security and I believe that the Bush Administration has no real answer for either dilemma. One example, if I were to have a toothache needing medical attention, Medicaid will not pay to fill the tooth and soon they will not pay to pull it either. So I have to give you this one fact; Last year, 2004, Florida received $2.5 billion for Medicaid spending and almost 89% of that was used to pay for long-term care in nursing homes. People, I hope you are listening; we paid nursing homes $2.25 billion dollars to care for the ill, elderly, and people with disabilities and that includes quadriplegics, like myself.

From my perspective I believe that to some people, nursing homes are virtual prisons without the bars. I know; I have lived in a nursing home for close to 13 years now. I receive $35.00 a month. The nursing home decides what food I will eat and when food is prepared in mass, considering some people are not allowed some spices; the food usually is not that good. When I make personal plans, I have to think about who is scheduled to work and will my time conflict with the time of those who assist me. I was told Medicaid pays exactly $4,470 dollars a MONTH to house me in a nursing home. If I were given two thousand dollars less, I could live in the community, paying for my own assistance, and have a better quality of life. It would save Medicaid $24,000 each year.

Now, multiply that figure by the number of people living in nursing homes who desire to live in the community and we will quickly begin to get the System of Medicaid back on track and end the momentous waste of your hard earned tax dollars. We are at a crossroad in this great country and NOW is the time for us to demand change. History has shown that the great empires demise was from within. Misspending to care for the aged and disabled is eroding our children's finical future. Let's protect our country's future; contact your representatives and ask they pass MiCASSA.

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