Handicapped programs review

We may also decide to pay the child directly, if he or she is old enough to receive his or her own benefits. If you are eligible for disability benefits as a child, 2 months prior to attaining age 18, we will review your case. During this review, we will determine if your current medical condition s meets the disability requirements as an adult. When we initiate the medical redetermination, we will use the adult criteria to determine if you are eligible for disability benefits.

We use the same criteria for adults who file new SSI applications. The —77 Aaronic Priesthood study courses for teachers and priests stress that all young men will receive preparatory training for full-time missions when at all possible, and study guide sections for bishoprics and quorum advisers provide aid for working with handicapped quorum members.

The Relief Society mobilizes its visiting teachers to contact handicapped members and report their unmet needs to the Relief Society president, who works with the bishop on planning.

Some of those needs are met through compassionate service projects. All of these programs are designed to involve the handicapped in the full life of the ward. But sometimes special efforts are needed. In such cases, extra measures are available. If there are sufficient people to warrant them, and if the families and priesthood leaders involved concur, special education groups can be set up, like the primaries for mentally retarded children or like the deaf wards that have been organized in a few locations.

A single class might be successful in areas that lack sufficient people to form a complete unit. With the approval of the bishop, home teachers, and head of family, Sunday School can be held for the homebound as the leaders determine best—every week, once a month, etc.

Talking books and cassettes for the blind include books like A Marvelous Work and a Wonder and periodicals like the New Messenger Talking Book, a bimonthly magazine containing talks by General Authorities, interviews, and Tabernacle Choir music. Yet this exciting range of programs and aids available for the handicapped should not give the impression that the handicapped are primarily recipients of aid.

The Church needs their contributions. The story of H. Smith Shumway, bishop of Cheyenne First Ward, is representative of much valuable service being rendered throughout the Church. Father of eight, he was blinded at age twenty-three but does not find that blindness limits his effectiveness.

The only thing he adds is his signature. A bishop for two years, he has served as counselor in two bishoprics and three times as stake high councilor. His most rewarding assignment until now, he says, was serving as a stake missionary, since he felt he was blessed with the ability to readily memorize not only the discussions but numerous scriptures.

Nor does he feel that blindness has handicapped him as a father. With each handicap there comes a compensating strength. Discover it. Use it. Seminary and Institute materials: your local seminary coordinator or institute director has the catalog of curriculum materials and information on establishing special classes.

The chapters of the report have been grouped into the following broad sections:. The review process adopted was quite unlike most public inquiries undertaken by the Commonwealth Government and it is important to describe that process first. The major focus of the Review was to establish appropriate long term goals and develop program options based on the aspirations of consumers.

This consumer outcomes approach is a most important development and will form the basis of new programs for people with disabilities to be established by the Commonwealth. This legislation will be designed to be more flexible than the current Act, involve a number of funding innovations and provide for better co-ordination of services than currently exists.

The terms of reference of the Review, while focusing on Commonwealth programs of relevance to disabled people, were quite broad and consequently attracted comment on an extensive range of issues.

It is not practical to attempt to list all such issues in a report of this nature and hence only the main themes are covered here. Other reports will be available later giving further details on some of the matters referred to in this report. Throughout the report selected quotes from people participating in the consultation or who wrote to the Review have been used as illustration. The cartoons are the work of Simon Kneebone. In Australia at the present time, the terms disability and disabled are more generally acceptable to the people involved than are the terms handicap and handicapped.