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Youth and Disability

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Introduction

This article discusses the impact that having a disability has on adolescents. In this context, disability can be defined as physical or psychological, statistics for both disabilities are mentioned. This is a large portion of the world that is strong impacted by social and person issues. Many youth live normal and stable lives, however those with disabilities may experience more obstacles than those without due to potential limitations, those created by physical limitations and social limitations. In this context since there are statistics from many different places youth is defined not as an age, but as a period of transition between childhood and adulthood.

Finances

Family Effects

Being a youth with a disability can create a financial burden on the individual, as well as those that care for and support them. In consideration to the family costs, there are direct and indirect costs that are included in addition to the regular costs of having a family.

Direct and Indirect Costs

Direct monetary costs include expenditures on health care, therapeutic, behavioral, or educational services; transportation; caregivers; and other special needs services. Indirect costs consist primarily of reductions in parents’ ability to sustain paid employment. This loss of productivity could relate to additional time that is required to care for a child with a disability combined with high costs or unavailability of adequate child care These costs alone can decrease the financial stability of a family.This is a similar problem that many families face, however, the youth in these families may be staying at home through their late teens and require more attention. Studies showed that having a child with disabilities increases the likelihood that the mother (and less often the father) will either curtail hours of work or stop working This particular study showed that a decline in employment of 9 percentage points for mothers with a disabled child relative to all mothers, we estimate an annual loss in earnings from absence from the labor force of approximately $3,150, with a large range depending on the estimates used.108 In addition, mothers who continue to work are estimated to reduce time worked by around two hours a week, with a range of between half an hour and five hours a week Families with more resources than others may be able to create financial stability, even with the financial strain of having a youth with a disability. These resources may provide treatment, housing, therapy, etc. for the youth with special needs. These children are more likely to be able to function independently from their family, and live on their own at an earlier age than those families that may not be able to afford these extra resources.

Employment

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Education

Youth with special needs may need to find a school that accommodates for their needs, either in a classroom setting or in an entire school that is created for youth with special needs.

History

Before the 1970s there were no major federal laws that protested the civil or constitutional rights of American's with disabilities. The civil rights movement started off the "disability rights movement" which focused on social and therapeutic services for those with disabilities, and in 1975 the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was created. This allows for the right of children with disabilities to attend public schools, to receive services designed to meet their needs free of charge, and to receive instruction in regular education classrooms alongside nondisabled children . The IDEA also authorized federal grants to states to cover some of the costs of special education services for youth aged from three to twenty-one children. Additions to the law focused on improving access to general education and curriculum (inclusion programs), developing appropriate assessments, implementing appropriate disciplinary procedures and alternative placements, and creating transition services for youth leaving the education system. This transition can be difficult for youth with a disability if it is too sudden - many of these youth struggle with the independence that graduation allows. In 2004, additions were made to promote better accountability for results, enhance parent involvement, encourage the use of proven practices and materials (increase research on current practices), and reduce administrative burdens for teachers, states and local school districts. Before 1975, only one in five children with identified disabilities attended public school, and many states explicitly excluded children with certain types of dis- abilities from school; these included children who were blind or deaf, and children labeled “emotionally disturbed” or “mentally retarded."

Current Special Education System

The current special education system can offer many different supports and services including transportation, speech-language pathology and audiology services, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, therapeutic recreation, counseling services including rehabilitation counseling, orientation, and mobility services, medical services for diagnostic or evaluation purposes, school health services, social work services in school, and parent counseling and training children. Each unique student and their unique symptoms of their disability is going to require different supports from another youth with a disability (even if it is the same disability). Within the classroom, there are many different ways that teachers and administration can adjust their work to meet the needs of the youth in their classroom with disabilities. Just a few of these adaptations are curriculum modification, small-group or individual instruction, and teachers who are especially skilled in motivating students, adapting instructional materials, teaching reading skills and language arts, and managing student behaviors.Specific accommodations might include tutors or aides, more time for students to take tests, alternative tests or assessments, modified grading standards, slower-paced instruction, shorter or different assignments, more frequent feedback, a reader or interpreter, a peer tutor, or special behavior management approaches and programs.

Still a ways to go

While special education has improved immensely in the last few years, there are still some major adjustments that need to be performed for it to be entirely successful.The main thing that special education still needs more of is research and evidence. Many of the services that youth receive have not been researched in detail about how effective they might be in improving the performance of youth with disabilites. Also researching more appropriate ways to assess the academic achievement for studnets with disabilities is neccessary to improve the special education system. This will help researchers undersatnd the vareity of special needs that need to be accomodated, and how each youth with a disability needs to be treated as individuals and not clumped together by their disability. some studies have demonstrated that a few main problems are states noncompliance with the many adiministrative and procedural requirements of the program, as well as the federal governments lack of funding and ineffectiveness in enforcing the law. many legal conflicts that arise between parents and the schools can be complicated, and counter productive for the children and their educational successes.

Poverty

80 per cent of people with disabilities live in resource-poor societies. They are often considered by society to be a burden, and have a very negative stigma ad unable to contribute to the society in a positive and useful way. Many of these people are unable to attend school or find work. Those who are disabled are among the poorest of the poor.

Disability rights

United States of America

In the United States the support for persons with disabilities is seen as a right, and as an entitlement. In the past, disability support was only given to those who were “deserving members of society” meaning those that contributed positively to society in a financial or social aspect. Both the American Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 were greatly influenced by the civil rights movement and attendant legislation, thereby producing a tension in American disability policy between entitlements and human rights If laws managed to get past to protect the rights of those with disabilities, not all laws and policies can be translated into effective social programs and positive incentive systems that encourage persons with disabilities to take their places in the public forum. The civil rights are only the first step to protecting those with disabilities, there is still a lot of work to be done with the social stigma.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, there are very few civil rights for those with disabilities. There are an estimated 600 million people with disabilities worldwide, and no convention related to their well-being or rights. The current relevant discussion on the need for this much needed convention is an opportunity to think about the society and individuals that are in need of the convention to improve their current quality of life. Many of those with disabilities are in undeveloped countries, and therefore have even less access to education, health care, jobs and general rights. Discussions on a disability rights convention took place in the context of the UN Decade for Disabled Persons (1983-1992) (Degener and Drese, 1995), although the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons was established by the UN General Assembly only in December 2001 (Resolution 56/168). This convention would be in hopes to create changes in housing and urban planning, transportation, communication, assistive and general technology, even education and employment policies or programs, which will not automatically change social attitudes, ensure inclusion or provide the intellectual and moral commitment but continue to test the environment to minimize disadvantages and prevent social exclusion, marginalization and stigma. The lack of rights for those with disabilities isn't going to be changed in a day and neither is the social stigma, however the improvement of rights for those with disabilities will diminish some of the struggles that they currently face today. Creating a convention in the United Kingdom is important for the current youth culture so that they can continue to create a healthy and thriving community for those who are disabled, and pass on the safety that they would feel with the convention on to future youth disability cultures.

Crime

It is clear that the prevalence of psychiatric disorders is higher among inmates than among those outside of prison. It also seems likely that psychiatric disorders are related to at least some of the difficulties former inmates experience after they are released, which can mean a few different things. This can suggest that those who diagnosed with a mental disability may have a harder time readjusting to life outside of prison after being released; this could consist of repetition of crime, or difficulty maintain independent stability financially or emotionally. The relationship between psychiatric disorders and incarcerations implies that there is a correlation between the two, or that those with a disability may end up in prison partially because of their mental illness.

Mood Disorders

The incarceration of those that are mentally disabled are mostly correlated with mood disorders and substance abuse. Mood disorders that were found in prison were mostly related to feeling “down,” including major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and dysthymia. For example studies show that about 1 in 10 inmates experience major depression, and among male inmates 1 in 2 experiences antisocial personality disorder. Incarceration is associated with a 45 percent increase in the odds of lifetime major depression, which is one of the most common psychiatric disorder in the general population. Studies also found that early substance abuse disorders anticipate later incarceration and other psychiatric disorders simultaneously . This suggests that the more psychiatric disorders one is experience that more likely they are to become incarcerated. Many crimes either reflect the behavioral disinhibiting association with substance use or are a direct reflection of possessing controlled substances, which makes the connection of who are most likely to be in possession of substances commit crimes; people who are diagnosed with substance abuse are more likely to be in possession of substances than those that aren't.

Punishment vs. Treatment

These statistics raise the question of "is incarceration the best possible treatment/punishment for those that are mentally ill?" The results point to areas of mutual interest between those concerned with the health consequences of incarceration specifically and those interested in the negative effects of incarceration . Particularly with those diagnosed with mood disorders, the stress of prison life may increase their symptoms and the lack of treatment that they are receiving while in prison (ranging anywhere from prescribed medication to therapy) may worsen their condition. This make sense when looking at the difficultly that those with mental illness have adjusting to an independent stable life after they are released from prison. Incarceration of those with psychiatric disabilities is strongly reliant on childhood background factors, and early onset substance abuse to a degree . There are many other factors that can influence the incarceration of an individual that are not mental health.

Society Portrayal of Youth with Mental Illness

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Hate Crimes

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