From the Boston Globe:

The Goldfarb Behavioral Health Clinic in Jamaica Plain, which provides mental health care to patients with critical needs, is the latest casualty in a round of budget cuts in Massachusetts. Hundreds of poor and mentally ill outpatients will be forced to find new care or go without.

Shutting down the Goldfarb clinic may, in the end, save the state only slightly more than $100,000. Patients and therapists say it will be extremely difficult to replace the trusting relationships that have developed over years of work.

… The clinic’s closing has baffled [therapist Chris Jepson]. “It costs the taxpayers a lot more money to incarcerate these people or to have them in-patient in a psych ward,” he said.

Video here.

By correspondent Karen Meyer at WLS-TV, Chicago (ABC affiliate):

Disability advocates in Chicago have a list of priorities for Barack Obama’s first year in office:

Employment, broad disability representation in government, and passage of the community choice act are high on their lists.  An excerpt:

Employment remains the number one concern and challenge among the disabled population, according to Jim Kesteloot, outgoing executive director of the Chicago Lighthouse for people who are blind and visually impaired.

“If you have a major recession going on. It’s even more important because it’s going make it that much harder for a person with a disability to get a job. They’re usually the last being considered, and when people are being let go, they’re often the first to go,” Kesteloot said.

He recommends improving job skills and education programs for people with disabilities, especially those with visually impairments.

Meyer, who is deaf, speaks and signs simultaneously while the text of the report is spelled out across the screen in close-captioning. With video.

(Photo from WLS/ABC-TV in Chicago)

From Marketwire/MSNBC:

YouTube and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting announce that “Abilities,” a short film made by Arturo Perez, Jr. about a community of people with disabilities, has won the online video journalism competition, Project: Report.

The program attracted hundreds of journalists from around the world for a competition that called for short, high quality videos focused on stories that are not typically covered by the traditional media.

Perez’s winning video explores the lives of the residents of Camphill, a community near Santa Cruz, California. At Camphill, adults with developmental disabilities live, learn and work together with professional caregivers and volunteers.

Perez will receive a $10,000 grant and the opportunity to report on an issue of global importance.

View the video here.

(Video still from “Abilities.”)

From the Boston Globe, Fox 25 News:

Local actors and celebrities turned out in Boston for a screening of “The Child King,” starring Special Olympics athlete and first-time actor Peter Johnson (left).

Written by federal agent Jeff Kerr and produced by his brother, filmmaker Frank Kerr, the feature-length DVD is the story of a teenage boy with Down syndrome who takes his doubting little brother on a life-changing quest to find Santa Claus. It was created on a shoestring budget; profits go to the Child King Foundation to benefit children with intellectual disabilities.

From the archives:

• Scituate High School student stars in film – Quincy [MA] Patriot Ledger
• Holiday fun for all: A review of The Child King — Exceptional Parent

(Fox photo)

There’s lots more out there today on the skit about New York Gov. David A. Paterson that appeared on ‘Saturday Night Live’ over the weekend. Here’s a sample:

– Media use blindness puns to report on criticism of ‘SNL‘ jokes. Writing on the Poynter Institute’s site,  Joe Grimm singles out some headlines for critique: “Paterson in a blind rage over ‘SNL’ skit” (New York Post); “Blinding Mad: Gov. Paterson Rips ‘SNL’ for Skit” (NBC.com); and “NY Gov Won’t Turn Blind Eye to SNL Bash” (TMZ.com).

– NY governor says SNL parody mocked the disabled – AP/ABC

– Why so serious, gov Paterson? – Joanna Molloy in New York Daily News. An excerpt:

Gov. Paterson needs to lighten up … we’ve been making fun of challenged politicians for quite some time. When George W. Bush waved to Stevie Wonder, who was the impaired one?

– Did SNL go too far with its Gov. David Paterson skit? – Dish Rag blog, Los Angeles Times

– Gov Paterson -‘ SNL’ skit was ‘pretty degrading’-Newsday

(more…)

From the [UK] Independent:

An independent UK media regulator has found that the BBC  violated the Broadcasting Code in airing a radio show in which an American comedian described Sarah Palin’s son as “retarded” and said his Down syndrome was proof that “God obviously hates her.”

The finding came in response to a viewer complaint about a show last September that featured comedian Doug Stanhope. In a Broadcast Bulletin, the UK Office of Communications (Ofcom) said “the word ‘retarded’ was used in a particularly derogatory manner” and that the reference to Down syndrome as a punishment from God was “highly offensive.”

(more…)

From the Washington Post:

Every year for more than a decade, the Joffrey Ballet has invited a child with a disability to perform with other young dancers in the party scene of “The Nutcracker.”

This year, the role in the Kennedy Center production went to eight-year-old Mary Cassell, a third grader from Maryland who has cerebral palsy. (Above, center.)

Andrew Imparato, head of the American Association of People With Disabilities, said Mary’s participation sends a strong positive message. “To have a child with a disability in a professional ballet company reminds people of disabled people’s capacity to participate,” he said.

Mary herself was initially skeptical. “They need someone in the Joffrey Nutcracker with a handicap?” she said. “At first I didn’t really think I wanted to do it, but I was like, okay, I may not have another chance at this, so might as well do something if I actually have a chance to.”

See video here.

(Photo from Washington Post video.)