By Rick Rader, MD Patti Wade knew we needed to understand dementia and how it manifests itself in our already vulnerable population. How we have to modify and address our own behaviors, the environment, stressors, accommodations and the way we communicate and react. Pablo Picasso, who knew a thing or two about being an artist,…
Through the Looking Glass
BY RICK RADER, MD “There comes a time in a man’s life when to get where he has to go – if there are no doors or windows he walks through a wall.” – Bernard Malamud Some things sometimes get the limelight that others deserve. Take the device that enables efficient movement of an object across…
The Cards Are Stacked Against You
ANCORA IMPARO RICK RADER, MD ■ EDITOR-IN-CHIEF A triple threat in baseball is a player who could run, hit and field. In the special needs community, a triple threat is a player who can envision, advocate and activate. This morning I led some guests on a tour of the Orange Grove Center where I have…
The Case for Hairy Arms
BY RICK RADER, MD * EDITOR-IN-CHIEF After being on vacation for a week, Susan comes back all aglow. Aglow and exhausted. Susan is the Administrative Assistant at the Habilitation Center at Orange Grove and she was on a pilgrimage to Disneyworld with her family and granddaughter Presley. Aglow and exhausted best describes the human condition…
Thanking The Swiss For More Than Their Chocolate
BY RICK RADER, MD Learning more and growing sums up the never-ending pursuits of the “exceptional parent”as well as their ongoing search for the tools to achieve those goals. While I was working at my desk (drafting a policy paper on the appropriate number of times our nurses should attempt to “stick” a patient in…
A Most Exclusive Club
By RICK RADER, MD * EDITOR-IN-CHIEF I was cleaning out my wallet the other day, a bi-annual ritual to purge the detritus of business cards offered to me at the numerous conferences, meetings and presentations I attend (or at least show up at). As I was triaging the findings (invoices, credit card chits, movie ticket…
Warning Signs
BY: Rick Rader, MD So what came first, our inherent stupidity or the lawyers who insisted that we be protected from ourselves?
Blue Hens, Kitchen Tables and the Grooming of Future Leaders
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams Sixty plus years ago, when the disability rights movement started to get traction, there was a common landmark for most of the pioneering advocacy organizations. The Formica kitchen table with chrome legs served…
Blue Hens, Kitchen Tables and the Grooming of Future Leaders
by RICK RADER, MD * EDITOR-IN-CHIEF “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” –John Quincy Adams Sixty plus years ago, when the disability rights movement started to get traction, there was a common landmark for most of the pioneering advocacy organizations. The Formica…
Too Cute
by RICK RADER, MD * EDITOR-IN-CHIEF From time to time cute things cross my desk and instinctively get my attention. Most of the “cute things” are in emails that friends and colleagues send my way in the ongoing belief that most of us need a daily “cute fix” to ground us. Recently (it’s the life…