Recent Blog Posts
- SCI Did Not Stop This Tough German
- Update On Rodney Rogers
- Another Day, Another SCI
- Rodney Rogers, Paralyzed
- Budget Cuts Reduce Disabled Transit
- New Jersey State to Cut Spinal Cord Injury Research Funds
- Recent Study on US Health Care System Performance
- Good Article on Making Babies After SCI
- "We have promising new treatments that would just die on the vine"
Spinal Cord Injury News's blog
Budget Cuts Reduce Disabled Transit
Submitted by Spinal Cord Inj... on Mon, 07/26/2010 - 19:59EVLiving.com: Valley Transit Service Reductions Hit Disabled Hard
In Arizona, I don't expect the 75% unemployment rate for people with spinal cord injuries who can't drive will be decreasing any time soon.
Going to work, getting an education, visiting friends and relatives and other activities could be severely cut for disabled valley residents when July transit services reductions go into effect.
New Jersey State to Cut Spinal Cord Injury Research Funds
Submitted by Spinal Cord Inj... on Fri, 07/02/2010 - 21:00"In 1999, the state
of New Jersey passed a law which took $1 from each
traffic ticket and put that towards the funding of spinal cord injury
research. In 2003 and then 2005, the state legislature passed similar
legislation to take $1 from traffic tickets to pay for brain injury and
autism research. The laws states that the money cannot be used for any
other purpose. The New Jersey Commission for Spinal Cord Research funds
approximately $3.5 million of spinal cord injury research per year.
When I first came to New Jersey in 1997, there was little spinal cord
injury research being done in the state. Now, there are over a dozen
laboratories doing spinal cord injury research.
Recent Study on US Health Care System Performance
Submitted by Spinal Cord Inj... on Thu, 06/24/2010 - 21:00Sometimes its easy to ignore how bad the US health care system really is. Unfortunately for those with a SCI, it is a daily reality that cannot be ignored. The worst part is how much we have to pay for the substandard care we do receive. With disabled unemployment at all time highs and most disabled people living at/below the poverty line, it is easy to understand the disturbing rankings in the graphic from the study below--last place in both "Equity" and "Long, Healthy, Productive Lives".
"Despite having the
most costly health system in the world, the United
States consistently underperforms on most dimensions of performance,
relative to other countries."
Good Article on Making Babies After SCI
Submitted by Spinal Cord Inj... on Sun, 06/20/2010 - 21:00"People
with spinal cord injury-related paralysis can - and do -
conceive children. But it can be a long, emotionally difficult and
expensive process with no guarantees. Men, more so than women, also can
find it harder to achieve biological parenthood."
PhillyBurbs.com: 'For everything I've lost, I've gained so much more':
"We have promising new treatments that would just die on the vine"
Submitted by Spinal Cord Inj... on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 21:00"The state's budget woes are being felt at the New York State Neural Stem Cell Institute, where scientists have been working to find ways to regenerate damaged spinal cords.
New York officials now want to use the funds that are collected from a surcharge on moving violation traffic fines and dedicated to research to instead help close the budget gap. Legislation establishing the Spinal Cord Injury Research Trust Fund provided that up to $8.5 million a year was to fund research into spinal cord injuries.
Sally Temple is scientific director at the stem cell institute, housed in the Cancer Research Center at the University at Albany's East Campus. Grants from the trust fund cover about 20 to 30 percent of the institute's activities.
New York Legislature Cuts Self-Funding Spinal Cord Injury Program
Submitted by Spinal Cord Inj... on Thu, 03/11/2010 - 22:00"In 1998, with the help of friends and influential people like Christopher Reeve, Richter got the state to create the Spinal Cord Injury Research Board, which distributes research grants to facilities all across the state. To fund it, the state placed a surcharge on fines for moving traffic violation.
"It’s a self-sustaining program,” Richter explained. “It was an idea I had to try to raise money, and most spinal cord injuries result from automobile and motorcycle accidents."
