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Maryland offers "The New Directions Waiver" as a means of self-directing state and federal Medicaid dollars for individuals who qualify for supports due to their disability.

This offers the disabled individual the opportunity to use those dollars to best meet their own unique needs. However, it comes with the responsibility to create a plan, a budget, and find your own resources to make the plan a reality.

No centralized source of resources exists. The purpose of this blog is to direct others to resources in our communities and to provide one example of a self-directed plan. (*Caution: The self-directed plan described at the beginning of this blog is for an individual with a 5/5 needs rating, the highest possible rating in Maryland, and therefore the highest budget possible. Most will have a lower rating and a lower budget to work with.) It is also to share firsthand knowledge of experiences that may assist others who self-direct services.

Comments are welcome. Please share your knowledge with others.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Drug Trial on Arbaclofen for Autism

To read an MSNBC article about the trials of Arbaclofen for reduction of autism symptoms, copy and paste this URL;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47630513/ns/health-mental_health/#.T8zqZbDOy5I

Here is a short passage from that article:

 "As Jack's experience suggests, that may be about to change. Researchers are conducting advanced trials of the first drugs expressly designed to correct the genetically induced signaling problems in the brain that result in autism. The early indications are positive enough to offer new hope for families and spark interest from drug companies. For patients, this research "may not solve their autism, but it may solve aggression, it may solve sensory overload, which leads to a lot of behavioral issues," says Isaac Pessah, an autism researcher at the University of California at Davis, who has not been involved in any of the drug trials."


According to the article the drug is still being studied in small trials and access by those not enrolled in these studies is still years away. 

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