Disability Awareness and Services

Disabilities can be identified as emotional, physical, developmental disabilities or learning. Below is a description of disabilities under each category along with support information from our Catholic Church, the WNY community and National organizations.

Emotional Disabilities

The most common emotional disabilities are:

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) is a neurobiological condition with the three symptoms of problems paying attention, begin very active (called hyperactivity), and acting without thinking (called impulsivity). 3 out of 100 children are AD/HD and three times as many boys as girls.

There are three types of this disorder:

Inattentive where the person can’t seem to get focused or stay focused on a task or activity
Hyperactive-implusive where the person is very active and often acts without thinking
Combined- where the person is inattentive, impulsive and too active

Mental Illness, as defined by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, is a group of disorders causing severe disturbances in thinking,  feeling and relating which diminish one’s ability to cope with normal demands. 

Common mental illness are: anxiety disorder, substance abuse, Alzheimer’s disease and phobias.

Schizophrenia is a group of disorders marked by delusions, hallucinations and disorganized thinking. Connections with what is going on within a persons and what is happening in the outside world seem to split apart. Usually this disorder appears in teens and 20-30 year olds. Visit www.schizophrenia.com
Bipolar disorder is characterized by manic depression, a strong genetic disease, which moves one from hyperactivity and euphoric to intensely irritable.
Major clinical depression symptoms include: persistent sad or empty feeling; feeling helpless, worthless, pessimistic or guilty; abuse of substances; fatigue or loss of interest in common activities; disturbances in eating and sleeping; irritability, crying, anxiety and panic attacks; difficulty concentrating, remembering or making decisions; thoughts, plans or attempts of suicide; persistent physical symptoms or pains that won’t respond to treatment.
Alzheimer’s  is a brain disorder that more that 5 million Americans now have The first symptom people notice is a forgetfulness severe enough to affect work, lifelong hobbies or social life. Symptoms progress to confusion, trouble with organizing and expressing thought, misplacing things, getting lost in familiar places, and changes in personality and behavior. Visit. www.alz.org  

Physical Disabilities

Fifty percent of disabilities are apparent and fifty percent are not.  Physical disabilities are the easiest to identify.  

CHRONIC ILLNESS

HEARING IMPAIRMENTS

An ALD(assistive learning device)  is a device that picks up sound (voice, music, etc.) at or close to its source, amplifies the sound, and delivers it to the user’s ear.  An ALD has advantages over conventional amplifications systems.  Because the signal to be listened to is the only sound picked up by the system and transmitted directly into the user’s ear, the person’s perception of that sound is significantly improved because the user is not distracted by outside sound and can usually control the volume.  ALDs can improve interpersonal communication in meetings and other forms of public assembly.

The various types of Assistive Listening Devices are: Audio Loop systems, infrared    systems and FM systems.  The various types of Amplification Devices are: Telephone adapter, handset adapter, Portable amplifiers and permanent Amplifiers.

Contact Catholic Charities Office of Pastoral Ministry at (716) 856-4494 ext. 3003 for Advisors and Consultants for audio equipment in parishes.  

A hearing or speech impaired person with a TTY calls the New York Relay Service by dialing 1-800-662-1220 and asks the Communication Asssitant to connect them with the person with whom they wish to communicate.  A NY Relay Service Communication Assistant receives and responds to the typed TDD message, phones the other person with whom the caller wishes to communicate, and  relays the conversation back and forth. A person with a regular phone answers and picks up the line of communication with the calling party through the Communication Assistant at the NY Relay Service. The System also works in reverse when a caller with a regular telephone wishes to communicate with a hearing or speech-impaired person across New York State or across the Country. Dial 1-800-421-1220 (voice). People who experience a haring loss may communicate with spoken language or through sign language. People in the        Deaf Community use the American Sign Language as their form of Communication.  

PHYSICAL AND SPEECH IMPAIRMENTS

VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS

Persons with visual impairments have vision problems that cannot be corrected by the use of glasses or contact lens. They may see partially or be blind.

VISUAL AND HEARING IMPAIRMENTS

Persons who have lost the ability to see and hear may utilize finger spelling (an interpreter using their fingers to trace out the letter in a person’s hand) to communicate or may read braille. 

Developmental  Disabilities

Mental Retardation affects people by delays in learning and difficulty in applying learning.  Mental retardation can result from a variety of factors, among them premature birth, genetic abnormalities, malnutrition, exposure to toxic agents and social deprivation.

Cerebral Palsy is a group of conditions that result in limited or abnormal functioning in the parts of the brain that control movement. Cp usually is caused by brain injury before or during birth.  People with CP primarily have difficulty with muscular coordination. They also may have seizures or be unable to see, speak, hear or learn as other people do.

Epilepsy applies to numerous nervous system disorders that result in abnormal electrical discharges of brain cells.  This produces seizures that may cause convulsive movements, or partial or total loss of consciousness.  With medication, most people with this condition lead normal lives.

Autism is a lifelong neurological disorder that affects a person’s ability to communicate, reason and interact with others. It is a spectrum disorder that affects individuals differently and to varying degrees, and is often found in combination with other disabilities. There are 5 disorders under the Pervasive Development Disorder (PPD).

 
Traumatic brain injury is caused by an injury to the brain and central nervous system that considerably limits a person’s development, understanding, memory, attention span, fine muscle control, use of language or ability to adjust to new situations.

Learning  Disabilities

A learning disability (LD) is a neurological disorder that affects the brain’s ability to collect , sort, store and express information.  For example in collecting information, the person may judge depth, distance or size incorrectly.  When required to sort information, the person may be unable to perceive small details or match similar objects. The child may not be able to remember the order of sounds or how sounds match with letters when asked to store information.  storing information.  A person’s ability can be affected in the area of listening, speaking, reading, writing and mathematics. Visit www.ncld.org ( National Center on Learning Disabilities)

Additional Information

Services for Seniors with Disabilities Acquired through Aging

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