No Modern Asylums

Farms for Disabled People aren’t a New Idea

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Every few weeks, or at least with mind-boggling rapidity, a publication decides it has hit upon a great new idea to solve housing support issues for disabled adults, including those with mental health disabilities. They run a piece about nature-based farmstead “communities” of disabled people and staff who support them, and the “therapeutic” values of said farmsteads. They describe them often as a positive alternative to institutions, but these settings fail to qualify as alternatives to institutions. They are institutions. The idea that nature-based, isolated settings benefit mental health is popular today. For context, I define nature-based care  as “sending disabled people off to rural areas to be in the quiet aura of the country so that their mental health and/or other disabilities heal,” also historically known as “institutionalization,” regardless of whether the people wanted to go there.The articles and their authors fail to mention that these farmsteads are institutions that segregate … Continue Reading ››
Current Events

Medicaid Block Granting is Going to Kill Us

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Congressional Republicans recently introduced the American Health Care Act, or “TrumpCare,” a potential replacement for the ACA. This bill has the backing of Trump, Ryan, and other Republican leaders. The AHCA includes a proposal to convert Medicaid into a series of block grants as a way to save the government money on health coverage. Block grants are a type of federal funding that allocates a set amount to state governments to run programs like Medicaid. According to the Republicans, block grants will give more freedom to the states and allow more flexibility to be innovative. In theory, devolving more control to the states will allow local governments to more adequately identify which citizens need specific kinds of care. Unfortunately, these promises from the GOP don’t match the reality of what Medicaid block grants mean, especially for the low-income and disabled people who are dependent on Medicaid coverage to stay alive. … Continue Reading ››
Science & Research

New Study on Autism and Aggression Misses the Point

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There is a new study in the latest issue of the journal Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders on a correlation between autism, brain volume and aggression.   The team of researchers from Brigham Young University studied structural MRI data from the brains of 45 Autistic boys and 18 non-autistic boys to see if the brains did similar things or different things in the presence of “aggressive behavior.” Autistics who had been reported as exhibiting so-called “problematic aggression” had smaller brain stems and did not show the non-autistic tendency of structural differences in the brain structures linked to emotions and behavior. The brain stem is the part of your brain that keeps you breathing. The most basic functions of life are regulated by the brain stem, leading Stephenson, one of the study’s authors, to extrapolate that the discovered correlation means that, “this is evidence that there’s something core and basic, … Continue Reading ››
Link Roundup

This Week in Neurodiversity

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Each Friday at NOSmag, I post some links relevant to neurodiversity news and culture criticism around the web. This is what I’ve been reading and that I think you should be reading too. Feel free to add links of your own in the comments and email suggestions for future link roundups to nos.editorial@gmail.com. "We Are Not Burdens and We Don't Deserve to Die": A Disability Day of Mourning Roundtable" featuring NOS editor Sara Luterman, NOS contributor Cara Liebowitz, and bipolar badass Victoria M. Rodríguez-Roldán, among others. Amy Sequenzia rejects the concept of "intelligence," especially when it comes to her and her fellow nonspeaking typists. #CripTheVote is hosting a Twitter chat on March 12 on protecting the ADA. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network has released an action alert to give you the tools you need to help save the ADA and Medicaid. Play Overwatch? Fan favorite Symmetra has been confirmed autistic. … Continue Reading ››
Current Events

How Kellyanne Conway Sits Doesn’t Matter

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Recently, White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway was photographed kneeling on the couch in the Oval Office, staring intently at her phone, as a crowd of dignified African American educational leaders in suits posed for a photo with President Trump. Some of the social media responses were genuinely funny, some were cruel, some posed serious concerns, and some were just plain ridiculous. But the overall picture they form is, not surprisingly, an unfairly judgmental one. Many commenters accused Conway of uncouthness and unladylike behavior. Many faulted Conway's upbringing. For example, one  comment I saw asked if she “even had a mother,” implying that anyone with parents would know better than to put their feet on the sofa. This is part of a much larger trend of judging human beings, particularly women, by their appearance and behavior at every moment. It's remarkable how much we believe we can tell about a person … Continue Reading ››