New Horizons Un-Limited Inc.
New Horizons Un-Limited Inc.Many families, when faced with disability for the first time can be consumed with grief and despair, overwhelmed by the prospect that their family life may never return to "normal." Often, families are so consumed with "dealing" with disability, that they forget to take proper mental and emotional care of themselves. High levels of stress can quickly lead to burnout, disallowing families to properly plan for the future of their family member with a disability. This article, written by New Horizons Un-Limited staff, is the first of a series, designed to offer families of people with disabilities a tool in combating the negative feelings and roller coaster emotions often associated with disability. In reading this article you will be introduced to the basics of coping with stress and ways in which you can prevent burnout. It will further outline ways in which you can ensure that your family's uncontrolled stress levels do not prevent healthy life stage transitions.
Planning for the Future: Ensuring Opportunity
Published by New Horizons Un-Limited, June 28, 2002
When families discover a close family member to have a disability, mourning and despair can prevent them from grasping the reality of the event and therefore hinder the development of a proper transitional plan. Parents finding themselves without the necessary resources in place as their child ages will be forced to make rash decisions, thereby limiting their child's development.
An additional issue arises for aged parent caregivers who do not realize that at some point in the future they may no longer be able to care for their children in the capacity that is required. This will only lead to inadequate planning, causing their child, once grown into adulthood, to be left with nowhere to turn but the state social system, already overrun with growing waiting lists.
In both situations, despair and frustration can be avoided if parents have access to the resources, services and legislative information needed to properly plan for their family's and their child's future. This guide, written by NHU staff, is the second in a series designed to remind all families affected by disability that proper planning is the key to ensuring opportunity for your family member with a disability. It will also offer an introduction to each transition for which families must prepare, offering resource suggestions throughout.
Scoop Essentials: Transition, It’s A Brave New World
This is an article on the Disability Scoop website, a premier source for disability news. This article offers good advice for every step of transition planning from dealing with school districts to the steps you can take at home to ensure that independent adulthood is a reality.
This guide, published by The Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin, serves as a reference for anyone interested in helping young people with special health care needs and their parents prepare for transition to adult health care.
This handbook, created by the Statewide Independent Living Council of Hawaii, is designed to help you, the student, gather information you need, participate in creating your future, and making decisions about the directions your life will take. It is intended to serve as a resource for students and families in participating in the development of the transition portion of the student’s Individualized Educational Program (IEP).
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