February 27, 2025 • 34 mins
People with disabilities have every right to pursue an education, a great meal, and fair treatment. And there are laws in place to help them. In this episode, Eddie and Justin explain the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other laws and court cases that have shaped the United States. They explain how people with disabilities can get assistance with their mental health at work and in school. They also discuss how proposed federal budget cuts may impact the funding for these programs. Plus, find out which co-host has a spot-on Australian accent.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
O o OI. This is Millennial Mental Health Channel. I'm
doctor Justin Romano, a child adolescent psychiatry fellow.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
And I'm Adi Koreo, a licensed clinical therapist. Our podcast
is here because we wanted to start a much neater
conversation about mental health.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Our goal is to teach you as much as we
can by sharing our own experiences and interviewing experts in
the mental health field. We will discuss topics like mood disorders,
psychotic disorders, substance use, personality disorders, and many more.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Millennial Mental Health Channel buy Millennials for everyone. We hope
you enjoyed today's episode.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
MMHC is a production of Speaker from iHeartMedia, I heartmer
Good Eye. Welcome back to MMHC, and as a raison,
I'm talking like this for today and it's because we've
actually gotten a lot of Australian listeners on this show recently,
and i want to give a big old down under
shout out because I'm sure that's how every sounds in Australia.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
And our downloads are gone.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
All right, We're sorry, and we'd talking also about a
very American topic today.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
So yeah, well again, shout out to Australia. Before we start,
I will give my one shout out, and my shoutout
is going to be to my students this semester. I
don't even know if I've talked about it on the show,
but this semester I'm teaching cultural Foundations. It has been
a whirlwind. It has been tough, it has been good,
(01:31):
it's been all of the above. It's a new class
for me, new curriculum, had to come up with it.
I think we had the textbooks to go off of,
but pretty much had to build it on my own.
I should say on my own. I did get help
from the previous professor, but I kind of had just
build it in the way that I wanted to. So
I've been doing that and just shout out to them.
They've really taken the curriculum and the discussions and they've
(01:54):
really gone with it. We've had a lot of good talks.
As you can imagine if you are in the United States.
Jan until now has felt like six years. There's been
a lot of shit going on daily every hour, just
a lot of stuff going on. So I think the
topic's really important. I'm glad it's a required class for
counselors and therapists and training. We've had a lot to
(02:15):
talk about. One of my favorite parts of the class though,
has been and maybe it's my favorite because I came
up with the idea, but one of my favorite parts
has been we're doing current events every week, so two
to three students and then myself included, I present a
current event every single week, but two to three students
every week will present some kind of current event on
what's going on in the world related to the topic.
(02:35):
And a few weeks ago we our topic was disabilities,
so developmental and acquired disabilities. So we talked about that
a lot of great stuff, not great things in the news,
but a lot of great discussion, a lot of great
things for us to be aware. I've came up in it,
so I figured, why not share it with our audience
and talk about, you know, the intersection of disabilities and
(02:57):
mental health, both acquired and developmental topic.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
This is something that I'm really proud of the United
States for doing, is recognizing that people need extra help
in certain areas and getting them extra help in school,
putting the funding forward to make sure that people who
have disabilities are taken care of and given the advantages
that they should get in live. So before we get
(03:23):
to some history, we want to define a couple of things,
and we're going to be using the word developmental and acquired.
Developmental meaning present from early development and often life long.
So some examples of a developmental disability are things like
down syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, muscular dystrophy ADHD, autism, spectrum disorders,
(03:47):
and spine of bithida.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
And for acquired, these are typically things that occur due
to events or conditions after the developmental phase. So that
can be things like a TBI, a traumatic brain injury,
stroke related disabilities SPUN, a cord injury, diabetes, PTSD, things
like that. So we just give a couple of examples,
and there's definitely things that like can be either or
(04:09):
it could be like yeah, there's like things that could
be one or the other. Things with like your eyesight,
you're hearing things like that that could either be a
developmental thing or something that you acquire later in life.
So just important that we have that definition. So with
some history, and this was as I was getting my
lecture slides together, I learned a lot and I think
I didn't even take I didn't even say this part.
(04:31):
I've learned a shit ton in this class. We are
like halfway through and I am the quote unquote like
expert and like the one in charge. But I feel
like I learned so much shit every week it's pretty
fucking cool. So anyway, as I was getting ready for
that lecture, I was like, well, we should probably talk
about some history if we're gonna talk about disabilities, so
why not start with the Americans with Disabilities Act. So
this was something that was enacted in nineteen ninety. It
(04:53):
was a landmark civil rights law that protects individuals with
disabilities from discrimination and ensures that they have equal rights
and opportunities in various areas of their life. Essentially, it
aimed to promote inclusion for people with physical, mental, or
sensory disabilities. I will say this is great. I'm glad
our country did this in the nineteen nineties. Is kind
(05:14):
of move forward with it. It doesn't mean everyone gets
exactly what they deserve or should be getting. We're not
always the greatest of that, but we at least have
something in place that should help with that.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
So breaking it down into the different areas that people
get assistance with, so Number one employment, this is Title one.
It protects qualified individuals with disabilities from discrimination in employment.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Title II relates to public services, same thing. It protects
qualified individuals with disabilities from discrimination in public services public accommodations.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Title IIE protects qualified individuals with disabilities from discrimination in
public accommodations and services operated by private entities.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Title IOUR is telecommunication, so protects qualified individuals with disabilities
from discrimination in telecommunications. You can kind of see there's
a pattern here, but it's important that we talk about it.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, and it's important to just go over what the
basics are on this stuff because most people have never
gone over this. And then the last one is Miscellaneous Provisions.
Title VE addresses issues such as retaliation against individuals who
enforce their ADA rights and relationships to other laws.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
So, as you can imagine, in nineteen ninety it wasn't
the end all, be all, final ADA law that we're
going to have where they act right. There's always things
that you can make better. Very rarely is there a law,
at least I think in my humble opinion, I feel like,
very rarely there's a law that comes into play that
meets everybody's needs the best possible. There has to be
(06:48):
some things that get added. So in two thousand and eight,
the ADA Amendments Act was enacted to broaden and clarify
the definition of disability under the original ADA. So essentially
it made it easier to apply and focus less on
defining what is a disability as a means to not
accommodate an individual and more on making sure individuals are
not being discriminated against. So I think it broadened it
(07:11):
so it's not like, well, you got to meet there's
this criteria. It made it more a little more subjective,
which I think was better for people looking to get
resources and supports. It made the definition so it could
be interpreted more broadly, distinguished, and defined that an impairment
that limits one major life activity is a disability, even
(07:32):
if it doesn't limit other major life activities, which is
really important for a lot of people. There's just certain
things that they are impacted, either it's like school or
work or mobility things like that. So it's important that
just being able to have one major life activity impacted
helps them qualify for a disability. And then the last
thing that I added is that an impairment that's episodic
(07:53):
or in remission is a disability if it would limit
a major life activity when active. So I think of
that as someone who maybe has some pretty severe depression,
some pretty severe episodes of depression. Even when it does
go on remission, it doesn't mean that they no longer
have the disability. They can still be impacted by it.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
So let's talk about some actual conditions covered under the ADA.
So here's some of the physical impairments that are covered.
Visual impairments, speech hearing impairments, loss of body parts, mobility impairments,
and orthopedic conditions.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
In terms of mental impairments, there's things like specific learning
disabilities and psychological disorders. That's really important to put out
there someone, And really where it intersects with us is
that a mental health condition can be a disability for
some people.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
And then some other conditions too, like HIV AIDS. We've
got asthma, cancer, cerebral palsy, diabetes, epilepsy, heart disease, migraine, headaches.
And I didn't know I might be able to qualify
here muscular dystrophy and thyroid disorders.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Remember the impairment of at least one major life activity.
Fill it out there.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Thank you for clarifying and I don't think I do.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, that's why it's so good that, like I'm telling you, man,
like there's been so many times like even we have
next week's class. Spoiler alert if somehow any of my
students have found the podcast. Next week is about well
you should know anyway because you have the syllabus. Okay, anyway,
next week's topic is about Indigenous heritage. There's if I
take a couple of steps back, a lot of the
(09:28):
classes focusing on doctor Pamela Hayes and her addressing model.
Do you know what that is? Have you ever heard
of that?
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Not coming to mind?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
So addressing is it's an acronym. I'm gonna do my
best to get them all in order. I might not
be able to spell addressing correctly, but addressing stands for
A is for age and generational differences. D is for
both developmental and acquired disabilities. OURS for religion and spirituality.
What's next. E is for ethnicity or racial identity. S
(09:58):
is for sexual orientation. Their SS four socioeconomic status. I
is for indigenous heritage, and is for nation of origin,
and then G is for gender. So a lot of
our classes focusing on that, like different pieces of the
addressing model. So we've been talking about it every week,
and so next week is about the Indigenous heritage. And
as I still remember as I was reading through all
(10:19):
the chapters and stuff, just learning stuff like even like
Alaska Natives and how there was I can't remember the
exact company, but it was like an excellent company where
there was an oil spill in Alaska, and I talked
about the importance of understanding like how that traumatic event
impacted Alaska Natives more than other people because of their
relationship to the lands. So we're gonna talk about that
next week. But yeah, just I've learned so much shit, man,
(10:41):
Like I learned a lot.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And I also want to point out that you just
rattled off that entire mnemonic that wasn't even in the notes.
That was just off the top of here.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Fucking oh big.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I'm telling you, I'm back, impress, appreciate it. I do
want to give a story, And honestly, I think this
might be maybe the reason why I thought, I'm like, man,
we can really talk about this topic was that one
of my students shout out, LEXI, this was her current events.
I'm going to share a little bit about it. So
have you ever heard of the Zagat Guide or yeah,
(11:12):
Zagat Guide.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Have you ever heard of that?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Oh? Yes, popular in the early two thousands.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, so back in twenty eleven, the guide, which basically
aimed to rank the best restaurants in New York City,
led to eighty A compliance issues for Kat's Delhi. It's
a very famous like Deli diner in New York. Basically
the guide was used as a starting point to check
that businesses were in compliance with the ADA, which was
(11:38):
not the intended use, but that's what it ended up
being used for. And over the last there was the
last fourteen years. So well maybe they started in twenty eleven,
but over the last chunk of time, as they've been
trying to get Kat's Delhi and Eightya compliance, Kat's Deli
has really dug their feet in. They've basically said, like,
we're not making these changes. We're basically you know, twelve thirteen, fourteen,
(12:01):
fifteen years And this article that my student cited and
presented was from a month ago, like literally it was
like the week before she presented on disabilities as their
current event. It had just they just posted it like that.
Kat's Deli is still refusing to be an eighty eight compliance,
and I think part of it ends up being like
whatever the finds are, and stuff just seem cheaper than
(12:23):
fixing things. So some things that they cited were things
like the main entrance, accessible tables and bathrooms, and they
even did a remodel in like mid twenty tens. Did
not fix anything to make it a complain Yeah, but
from the article, it basically sounds like CATS has reached
the settlement to just kind of keep stuff the way
there it is. But really it highlights what people with
(12:44):
disabilities have to deal with on a daily basis, stuff
that you and I don't even really think about. You know,
when I this is probably just a coincidence, but when
I the week that I was doing the notes for
this class for the disabilities topic, we'd gone Kevin. I
had gone to a plant shop in Portland. We were
out there for probably like we're eating somewhere or whatever,
(13:05):
and we went to this plant shop that we'd been
to before. So we went to it and as we
walked in, I saw a sign that said, like ADA
compliant entrance this way. And I don't know if I
would have realized that if you know, we hadn't been.
I hadn't been getting ready for this topic. So just
stuff that we just don't think about unless you think
about it. It's just not something that impacts us every day.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I didn't really ever start thinking about this stuff, and
I know it's a very different situation. But the thing
that got me to think about it more was having
a baby and having a stroller. And it's nice to
have ADA entrances for the stroller so you don't have
to like lift the stroller. But I realized how many
places still are not ADA compliant, how many places that
(13:48):
you can't roll up onto with the stroller. And I thought,
I thought we fixed this. I thought we had entrances
for everyone, accessibility for everyone, but there's still a ton
of places that I was like, wow, Wow, this is
a huge asshole for a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
And if it's not something that impacts you, then then
it doesn't You don't know, yeah, you don't.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Think about it. And surprisingly enough too this week, on
one of my drive homes from work, I was sitting
at a stoplight and a woman in a wheelchair was
trying to cross the street. But it was really snowy
out and so of course everyone shoveled their sidewalks. Everyone
shoveled their what's right in front of their businesses, all
(14:30):
onto the street and all onto the crosswalk. So this
poor woman was in em manual wheelchair just trying to
trudge through the snow and then got up and was like,
couldn't get over the street curb on. So she's just
like in the street struggling. So I started getting out
of my car to go try and help her, but
(14:51):
before I could, she flipped her wheelchair around and started
going backwards up the curb and like fighting her way
through through the snow and did it on her own.
And I just thought that was so resourceful. She's obviously
done this before and trying to live a world in
a wheelchair. And you know, more power Tour for having
(15:12):
some good strategies. But all those little things throughout life
that most people take for granted, people struggle with on
a daily basis. So since we both primarily work with teens,
we also have to consider what's being done in schools
to protect kids and teens with disabilities. So this is
really where our jobs have the most to do with
(15:34):
this subject. And this mostly comes in two different things
and individualized education Plans i EPs and five oh fours.
So people with a disability are entitled to extra help
in school through either an IEP or a five oh four.
So we want to go through what those specifically are.
(15:57):
So for an IEP. So, for a long time, students
with disabilities were not given any additional supports in schools
and historically were not allowed to attend public schools, which
limited their educational options to private school or home instruction.
But following Brown versus the Board of Education in nineteen
fifty four, parents of students with disabilities began to bring
(16:19):
lawsuits against their schools districts for excluding and segregating children
with disabilities. What an unintended consequences of such a major
lawsuit in our country. In nineteen sixty five, Congress enacted
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act the EESA. This act
helped provide resources to school districts to help ensure that
(16:43):
students with disabilities had access to quality education.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
The Education of the Handicapped Act replated that replaced the
EESA in nineteen seventy. It established a new grant program
that further provided educational resources and programs for students with disability.
The IEP or the individualized Education plan as we know it,
was first introduced to school systems when the right of
students with disabilities to attend public schools were legally recognized
(17:10):
under the Education for All Handicapped Children the EHA in
nineteen seventy five, So really kind of like the ADA,
the IEPs are a relatively new thing. The law contained
the first requirements for the development of an IP for
students with disabilities requiring special education services, and then an
amendment was added in nineteen ninety seven, again really not
(17:31):
that long ago, that required individualized transition planning for students
with an IEP, and then another amendment in two thousand
and four that required early intervention for students, greater accountability
and improve educational outcomes, and raise the standards for instructors
who teach special education classes. So some relatively new things
in the world of education in terms of helping students
(17:54):
with disabilities have the rights that they deserve.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
And I know that it seems like niche note, but actually,
when I was studying for my boards, one of these
questions popped up and said, what replaced the EESA in
nineteen seventy I know, yeah, when I was reading these
show notes, I was like, I kind of remembered that
I didn't remember the exactly answer. I was like, ah,
like I had to kind of study this and learn this.
(18:19):
I know in this show, we like to tell you
about how this relates to our jobs, and i EPs
are a huge part of my job. We ask every
single patient that comes through our office do you have
an IEP? Do you have a five le four? And
if we are diagnosing someone with a mental health diagnosis,
that will qualify for an IP. Particularly ADHD is probably
(18:41):
the one that we have the most, but you can
also get an IP for depression. You can also get
an IEP for anxiety. I write a ton of letters
telling the schools in the school district, like, please evaluate
the student for an IP. I think it would be
a great So it's helpful sometimes to have a letter
from a doctor, especially if it's a doctor that's diagnosed
(19:01):
you with those things. If anyone's in a position where
they feel like their child needs an IEP, doctors can
help write that letter to get that process going in
case anyone's curious.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
The thing for me that was eye opening when I
first started working in a school, and maybe it's just
our school but with just how many people were on
a five h four are an iap it's a lot
more common than I think I assumed. I think back
to my time in high school. I don't know if
I knew anybody that was on a five h four
plan and then IPS, and I'm sure it did, but
maybe I just didn't notice. So it's a lot more
(19:33):
common than people think like it is. It's a thing
that's out there. Even think of this. It's it's so
that's for like primary secondary education, right elementary through high school. Well,
there's people who go to college and need student services.
That's basically the upper education higher education equivalent of five
oh four's and IEPs, At least from my understanding, I
(19:55):
know people have those. So it's a lot more common
than I think we we assume it is so.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
And then on the flip side of that, where we'll
talk a little bit about five oh four plans, which
are similar also get kids extra resources in school, but
five oh fours tend to focus more on accommodations for
students with disabilities to ensure access and equality in the
general education environment, while IEPs provide specialized instruction and services
(20:23):
for students with specific disabilities. The key difference is that
the IEP falls under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
the idea, while the five oh four are part of
the Rehabilitation Act of nineteen seventy three. There are also
several states who want to remove this section five oh four.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
I remember I.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Had an attending explain it to me in very general terms,
as five oh four can be so much more general.
So IEPs tend to be for specific disabilities. There's like
thirteen specific things it can before, but if five O
four can be much more general, so like if someone
has a seizure disorder and needs extra accommodations in school
(21:05):
to help them get through and manage their seizure disorder,
that would probably be more along the lines of a
five oh four, Whereas if someone had ADHD, that would
fall more under an IEP as a general example.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
And you can still even have ADHD and have a
five oh four plan. It all really kind of depends
on the accommodations. And yeah, I think I think you're
really right on the five o fours and being more
generalizable in terms of like the accommodations. It's basically I
try to think of it as like you mentioned it
in the notes. But just like iaps specialized instruction with
(21:37):
specialized time with specialized instructors along with general education, but
there also might be things where they have to modify
things for certain classes and things that they can do.
Whereas like a five to oh four is here are
the accommodations that help you access a general education without
things needed to be modified, without things needed to be changed,
things like can take a break as needed, things like
(22:00):
is able to have extended time on tests or example,
you know, things like that. So yeah, I think you're
right on there, But really you might be wondering why
we're kind of talking about all This's why it's so important.
A lot of reasons why, especially if you're a provider,
it's good to know about these things, especially if you
work with kids and teens. But really, one thing that's
been coming that's been becoming more and more apparent in
(22:21):
my class that I've been teaching, is that things are
changing very quickly, or at least they look like they're
changing very quickly. With this new presidential administration, things are
just flying in and out right. How many executive orders
have been signed since January twentieth or January twenty first, right,
things have changed very quickly. You know, actually this week
that the week that we had the class on disabilities
(22:43):
developmental unacquired, my Monday section had their current events and
talked about how federal funding was beginning to freeze, right
because for certain things. The next day my Tuesday section
said how it was no longer frozen, right, So shit
was changing within twenty four hours. I think even in
my Monday section had stopped being classed and said something
(23:03):
changed already. So things are flying left and right, and
it's really important to just know what has been in
place and what may be challenged. Right, there's also concerns.
Concerns basically can continue with the potential dissolving of the
Education Department, who provide the fundings for things IPS and
five bell fours. And then also as mental health professionals,
(23:25):
it's really important that we know how to support our
clients and patients and getting the services and supports they need.
Just like Justin talked about, a letter from Justin is gold, right,
a letter from a doctor is gold in terms of
being able to get those things in place. You know,
I work our school counselors, they're the case manager for
our five O four plans, and they need a medical
statement to get the process started. If you're going to
(23:47):
move to an IP, there's testing from like the school
psychologists and other things on the educational side, but there's
also a diagnosis. So a letter from a mental health
professional can really go a long way in helping advocate
for our clients to get the things that they need.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
And I've seen it so many times in my patients.
Kids are struggling, We get them on the right treatment,
but they also get a five or four or an
i EP in place, and school turns around. They finally
get the support the things that they need to succeed
in school. So being able to succeed in school helps
you so much in life. If you can graduate from
high school, if you would have struggled and dropped out,
(24:24):
if you're able to graduate, that increases your quality of life,
It increases the amount of money you can make. It
can change your entire life getting that help early in school.
So we are big believers in these programs, which is
why it's so scary that Trump has said multiple times
that he wants to get rid of the Department of Education,
because if that funding drives up, then that program essentially
(24:46):
stops from our perspective, horrifying. That's really, it's really scary.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
One thing I do want to say, and not really
that makes me hopeful, But and no, not that it
makes me hope. I don't know. I guess I'm just
thinking of organ specifically. Right, Like, I saw a chart
in a map that basically said, like how much federal
funding do certain states take in? And I just say
hopeful for me? And I'm being selfish because I live
(25:14):
in Oregon. Oregon isn't getting a huge chunk of federal funding.
Like it's not like fifty percent. It was maybe in
like the ten or fifteen percent range, which is still
a sizable chunk that needs to be made up. But
it's something that we can probably work through. If you know,
catastrophe strikes and there's no longer any funding that way.
What's really fucked up and really sucks is it looks
(25:37):
like a lot of the states that may have potentially
voted for Donald Trump are the ones that are really
going to get be impacted. Right. A lot of the
states in the Midwest, a lot of these states that
use and need a lot of these services and resources
and maybe aren't realizing that they've used these resources and
services and basically voted against their own well being. I
(25:57):
went on a long talk with my students a few
weeks ago, basically, like, our job as clinicians is not
to change someone's mind, is not to change their values
and things that they believe in. Our job is to
listen and to be there to support them and to
try to understand where they're coming from. And I tell
you know, I can understand. I'll be fine going on
the record saying that, like I can try to understand
(26:18):
where someone comes from if they're voting for someone like
Donald Trump of like feeling like their needs are going
to be met. I can try to understand that. I
don't agree with it, but I can try to understand that.
So that's why it really sucks when you see things
like this and seeing where what states are going to
be impacted, and a lot of them. The Venn diagram
of states that voted for Donald Trump and states that
are going to be largely impacted by cuts like this,
(26:41):
it's almost a perfect circle. And that's not great.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Saw. It was like Kentucky, Texas, a lot of Southern
states and Midwest states, the ones that tend to lean
red are the ones that use and receive them most
funding from the Department of Education, so they're going to
be impacted the mouse.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
So yeah, even just a part of education, right, we're
thinking about Medicare, Medicaid foods down CBT, yes hard.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Most recent proposed budget in the House had like an
eight hundred billion cuts to Medicaid. It's like, oh, my good,
people are going to really suffer. So Eddie and I
are scared the star just because we care about people
and these policies impact people. And I know that I
(27:30):
have some friends who work at the VA and Elon
Musk even posted that meme about federal workers like crying
about the Doge Department, and it's like, no, they're crying
because you're ruining their lives, man, Like, these people are
hard working, these people are sacrificing their time to help veterans,
(27:52):
and you're treating them like second class citizens and their
jobs need to be cut. And so yeah, I don't know,
we're starting to get off the rails here and get
too political. But it's just like, boy, I wish we
could just treat people like human beings, like their people.
So when we talk about accommodation, what do we actually mean,
(28:16):
like the type of accommodations that kids can get in school.
These are things like providing a private space in case
they need to calm down, in case they need to
have their own space to get their school work.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Done, things like reducing distractions. And actually, I want to
go a step further. This is not just for kids
and teens, but even workplace accommodations. Right under the ADA,
you're entitled to reasonable accommodations. So I think that's the
best part of what I was putting. This is a
lot of these can be flexed. This could be for
kids and teens, or this could be for adults working.
(28:48):
So a lot of things that are.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Possible flexibility with work schedule. And boy, that's a really
helpful one with kids with ADHD because they tend to
have a hard time remembering to turn stuff in, So
if you give them a more flexible deadline, then they're
more likely to just get stuff turned in when it
works for them.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Providing additional technology, so that can be things like recording devices,
speak to text programs on work computers. I actually had
a coworker whose hands were impacted by something. They had
some type of disability where they're find motor functioning had
been impacted for a while, and they had a text
they had to speak to text program for writing their
(29:28):
progress notes and all of their notes for work, So
that helped them a lot to not be behind on
anything and not feeling like they need to type everything out.
They had the program on their computer up thanks.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
We have identifying and reducing triggers.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Pretty straightforward one that I think, yeah, work or at school.
And then the last one which will take us to
our last topic for today, is a support animal. So
if you're in the mental health field or you're just
a consumer or a person outside of it that has
been living in this world, you've probably noticed that there's
people with animal with them that do some type of
(30:02):
or have some type of role, and those the two
types of animals are a service animal or an emotional
support animal or an ESA. We figured it would be
good to close with this to just kind of give
you some examples of what they do and what they're
there for, and just to to know like what kind
of protections you have. So a service animal, they're typically dogs,
(30:23):
are starting to perform a specific task to help somebody
with a disability. Do you know what the other animal
is that's allowed to be a service animal?
Speaker 1 (30:31):
I'm blank? And what is it?
Speaker 2 (30:33):
A miniature horse?
Speaker 1 (30:36):
I have heard about the I didn't. I wasn't sure
though if it was the emotional support animal or if
it's an actual service animal.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Yeah. I had to look it up a couple of times.
That's what the notes told me. If someone wants to
fact check me, leave us a comment.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
But that's what Yeah, I'd love to you know, if
I were blind, I would want a seeing Shetland pony.
I think that would be really.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
In terms of an emotional support animal, it's an animal
that provides therapeutic benefit to an individual with a mental
health disorder. This is a lot broader, and you can
see different things like cat's dogs, a fish, even for
someone like in college, just different things. What's really important
to know and what we want providers to remember, is
(31:20):
that service animals are included under the ADA, but unfortunately
emotional support animals are not, so that really can lead
to some issues if people don't understand their rights. It's
important to know the difference. It's important, especially if you're
a treatment provider or clinician, to know that you know
if you're going to write a letter for someone for
an emotional support animal and support of them, just knowing
(31:41):
that there may be some liability. And I don't say
that to scare anybody. I say that more to say
that emotional support animals are very it's an unregulated entity,
whereas service animals are very regulated. So just knowing that
going into it, just knowing that there's a lot of
people with bogus websites out there that just write letters
willing know and get them out to people, and people
(32:02):
spend their hard earned money trying to get an emotional
support animal letter and get up end up being scammed.
And there's just a lot. So it's really just important
to know the differences and what you can do as
a provider, what you can do to support people who
may need one of each of them.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
I do work with a lot of people with emotional
support animals, and I would say probably about like a
quarter of them say that their emotional support animals end
up being more anxious then the people who need them.
And like the emotional support animals need their own emotional
support animals. They're like old pippins are really anxious puppy.
You need to be some puppy Brozaic.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
It could be hard to take them out there, you know,
into the world every single day. You know, a lot
of dogs and animals I think enjoy there alone time.
So yeah, I've heard of that too. I'll wrap up
with the take home message and playing us out if
you want to also give a takehold message justin Really,
it's just important that we're aware of what's going on.
We need to know how to best support our clients
(32:57):
and patients especially and unfortunately if resources and supports may
be taken away. So it's just the more you know,
the better.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
My take home point would be that everyone should be
treated like a human. A lot of these laws, a
lot of these things that we've talked about today are
just an attempt to try and get people an equal
and level playing field, get them the access to the
things that everyone else already has. So it can change
(33:25):
people's lives in such a profound and dramatic way, and
I think everyone should get behind I EPs five oh
four's the ADA. There's a lot of really cool things
that we've been able to do, and hopefully we don't
move backwards.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Yes, with that, thank you all for listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
Wherever you get your podcasts you can find us. Feel
free to leave us a five star review, leave us
a comment, we'd love to see it. You can find
us on social media at Millennium mayc and at our
website millennialimac dot com. Shout out Australia and remember take
(34:00):
care of all mentals.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Ozzi, yozzi, yozzi, oh yoi oi
O o OI. This is Millennial Mental Health Channel. I'm
doctor Justin Romano, a child adolescent psychiatry fellow.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
And I'm Adi Koreo, a licensed clinical therapist. Our podcast
is here because we wanted to start a much neater
conversation about mental health.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Our goal is to teach you as much as we
can by sharing our own experiences and interviewing experts in
the mental health field. We will discuss topics like mood disorders,
psychotic disorders, substance use, personality disorders, and many more.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Millennial Mental Health Channel buy Millennials for everyone. We hope
you enjoyed today's episode.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
MMHC is a production of Speaker from iHeartMedia, I heartmer
Good Eye. Welcome back to MMHC, and as a raison,
I'm talking like this for today and it's because we've
actually gotten a lot of Australian listeners on this show recently,
and i want to give a big old down under
shout out because I'm sure that's how every sounds in Australia.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
And our downloads are gone.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
All right, We're sorry, and we'd talking also about a
very American topic today.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
So yeah, well again, shout out to Australia. Before we start,
I will give my one shout out, and my shoutout
is going to be to my students this semester. I
don't even know if I've talked about it on the show,
but this semester I'm teaching cultural Foundations. It has been
a whirlwind. It has been tough, it has been good,
(01:31):
it's been all of the above. It's a new class
for me, new curriculum, had to come up with it.
I think we had the textbooks to go off of,
but pretty much had to build it on my own.
I should say on my own. I did get help
from the previous professor, but I kind of had just
build it in the way that I wanted to. So
I've been doing that and just shout out to them.
They've really taken the curriculum and the discussions and they've
(01:54):
really gone with it. We've had a lot of good talks.
As you can imagine if you are in the United States.
Jan until now has felt like six years. There's been
a lot of shit going on daily every hour, just
a lot of stuff going on. So I think the
topic's really important. I'm glad it's a required class for
counselors and therapists and training. We've had a lot to
(02:15):
talk about. One of my favorite parts of the class though,
has been and maybe it's my favorite because I came
up with the idea, but one of my favorite parts
has been we're doing current events every week, so two
to three students and then myself included, I present a
current event every single week, but two to three students
every week will present some kind of current event on
what's going on in the world related to the topic.
(02:35):
And a few weeks ago we our topic was disabilities,
so developmental and acquired disabilities. So we talked about that
a lot of great stuff, not great things in the news,
but a lot of great discussion, a lot of great
things for us to be aware. I've came up in it,
so I figured, why not share it with our audience
and talk about, you know, the intersection of disabilities and
(02:57):
mental health, both acquired and developmental topic.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
This is something that I'm really proud of the United
States for doing, is recognizing that people need extra help
in certain areas and getting them extra help in school,
putting the funding forward to make sure that people who
have disabilities are taken care of and given the advantages
that they should get in live. So before we get
(03:23):
to some history, we want to define a couple of things,
and we're going to be using the word developmental and acquired.
Developmental meaning present from early development and often life long.
So some examples of a developmental disability are things like
down syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, muscular dystrophy ADHD, autism, spectrum disorders,
(03:47):
and spine of bithida.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
And for acquired, these are typically things that occur due
to events or conditions after the developmental phase. So that
can be things like a TBI, a traumatic brain injury,
stroke related disabilities SPUN, a cord injury, diabetes, PTSD, things
like that. So we just give a couple of examples,
and there's definitely things that like can be either or
(04:09):
it could be like yeah, there's like things that could
be one or the other. Things with like your eyesight,
you're hearing things like that that could either be a
developmental thing or something that you acquire later in life.
So just important that we have that definition. So with
some history, and this was as I was getting my
lecture slides together, I learned a lot and I think
I didn't even take I didn't even say this part.
(04:31):
I've learned a shit ton in this class. We are
like halfway through and I am the quote unquote like
expert and like the one in charge. But I feel
like I learned so much shit every week it's pretty
fucking cool. So anyway, as I was getting ready for
that lecture, I was like, well, we should probably talk
about some history if we're gonna talk about disabilities, so
why not start with the Americans with Disabilities Act. So
this was something that was enacted in nineteen ninety. It
(04:53):
was a landmark civil rights law that protects individuals with
disabilities from discrimination and ensures that they have equal rights
and opportunities in various areas of their life. Essentially, it
aimed to promote inclusion for people with physical, mental, or
sensory disabilities. I will say this is great. I'm glad
our country did this in the nineteen nineties. Is kind
(05:14):
of move forward with it. It doesn't mean everyone gets
exactly what they deserve or should be getting. We're not
always the greatest of that, but we at least have
something in place that should help with that.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
So breaking it down into the different areas that people
get assistance with, so Number one employment, this is Title one.
It protects qualified individuals with disabilities from discrimination in employment.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Title II relates to public services, same thing. It protects
qualified individuals with disabilities from discrimination in public services public accommodations.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Title IIE protects qualified individuals with disabilities from discrimination in
public accommodations and services operated by private entities.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Title IOUR is telecommunication, so protects qualified individuals with disabilities
from discrimination in telecommunications. You can kind of see there's
a pattern here, but it's important that we talk about it.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, and it's important to just go over what the
basics are on this stuff because most people have never
gone over this. And then the last one is Miscellaneous Provisions.
Title VE addresses issues such as retaliation against individuals who
enforce their ADA rights and relationships to other laws.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
So, as you can imagine, in nineteen ninety it wasn't
the end all, be all, final ADA law that we're
going to have where they act right. There's always things
that you can make better. Very rarely is there a law,
at least I think in my humble opinion, I feel like,
very rarely there's a law that comes into play that
meets everybody's needs the best possible. There has to be
(06:48):
some things that get added. So in two thousand and eight,
the ADA Amendments Act was enacted to broaden and clarify
the definition of disability under the original ADA. So essentially
it made it easier to apply and focus less on
defining what is a disability as a means to not
accommodate an individual and more on making sure individuals are
not being discriminated against. So I think it broadened it
(07:11):
so it's not like, well, you got to meet there's
this criteria. It made it more a little more subjective,
which I think was better for people looking to get
resources and supports. It made the definition so it could
be interpreted more broadly, distinguished, and defined that an impairment
that limits one major life activity is a disability, even
(07:32):
if it doesn't limit other major life activities, which is
really important for a lot of people. There's just certain
things that they are impacted, either it's like school or
work or mobility things like that. So it's important that
just being able to have one major life activity impacted
helps them qualify for a disability. And then the last
thing that I added is that an impairment that's episodic
(07:53):
or in remission is a disability if it would limit
a major life activity when active. So I think of
that as someone who maybe has some pretty severe depression,
some pretty severe episodes of depression. Even when it does
go on remission, it doesn't mean that they no longer
have the disability. They can still be impacted by it.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
So let's talk about some actual conditions covered under the ADA.
So here's some of the physical impairments that are covered.
Visual impairments, speech hearing impairments, loss of body parts, mobility impairments,
and orthopedic conditions.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
In terms of mental impairments, there's things like specific learning
disabilities and psychological disorders. That's really important to put out
there someone, And really where it intersects with us is
that a mental health condition can be a disability for
some people.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
And then some other conditions too, like HIV AIDS. We've
got asthma, cancer, cerebral palsy, diabetes, epilepsy, heart disease, migraine, headaches.
And I didn't know I might be able to qualify
here muscular dystrophy and thyroid disorders.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Remember the impairment of at least one major life activity.
Fill it out there.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Thank you for clarifying and I don't think I do.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, that's why it's so good that, like I'm telling you, man,
like there's been so many times like even we have
next week's class. Spoiler alert if somehow any of my
students have found the podcast. Next week is about well
you should know anyway because you have the syllabus. Okay, anyway,
next week's topic is about Indigenous heritage. There's if I
take a couple of steps back, a lot of the
(09:28):
classes focusing on doctor Pamela Hayes and her addressing model.
Do you know what that is? Have you ever heard
of that?
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Not coming to mind?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
So addressing is it's an acronym. I'm gonna do my
best to get them all in order. I might not
be able to spell addressing correctly, but addressing stands for
A is for age and generational differences. D is for
both developmental and acquired disabilities. OURS for religion and spirituality.
What's next. E is for ethnicity or racial identity. S
(09:58):
is for sexual orientation. Their SS four socioeconomic status. I
is for indigenous heritage, and is for nation of origin,
and then G is for gender. So a lot of
our classes focusing on that, like different pieces of the
addressing model. So we've been talking about it every week,
and so next week is about the Indigenous heritage. And
as I still remember as I was reading through all
(10:19):
the chapters and stuff, just learning stuff like even like
Alaska Natives and how there was I can't remember the
exact company, but it was like an excellent company where
there was an oil spill in Alaska, and I talked
about the importance of understanding like how that traumatic event
impacted Alaska Natives more than other people because of their
relationship to the lands. So we're gonna talk about that
next week. But yeah, just I've learned so much shit, man,
(10:41):
Like I learned a lot.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And I also want to point out that you just
rattled off that entire mnemonic that wasn't even in the notes.
That was just off the top of here.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Fucking oh big.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I'm telling you, I'm back, impress, appreciate it. I do
want to give a story, And honestly, I think this
might be maybe the reason why I thought, I'm like, man,
we can really talk about this topic was that one
of my students shout out, LEXI, this was her current events.
I'm going to share a little bit about it. So
have you ever heard of the Zagat Guide or yeah,
(11:12):
Zagat Guide.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Have you ever heard of that?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Oh? Yes, popular in the early two thousands.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, so back in twenty eleven, the guide, which basically
aimed to rank the best restaurants in New York City,
led to eighty A compliance issues for Kat's Delhi. It's
a very famous like Deli diner in New York. Basically
the guide was used as a starting point to check
that businesses were in compliance with the ADA, which was
(11:38):
not the intended use, but that's what it ended up
being used for. And over the last there was the
last fourteen years. So well maybe they started in twenty eleven,
but over the last chunk of time, as they've been
trying to get Kat's Delhi and Eightya compliance, Kat's Deli
has really dug their feet in. They've basically said, like,
we're not making these changes. We're basically you know, twelve thirteen, fourteen,
(12:01):
fifteen years And this article that my student cited and
presented was from a month ago, like literally it was
like the week before she presented on disabilities as their
current event. It had just they just posted it like that.
Kat's Deli is still refusing to be an eighty eight compliance,
and I think part of it ends up being like
whatever the finds are, and stuff just seem cheaper than
(12:23):
fixing things. So some things that they cited were things
like the main entrance, accessible tables and bathrooms, and they
even did a remodel in like mid twenty tens. Did
not fix anything to make it a complain Yeah, but
from the article, it basically sounds like CATS has reached
the settlement to just kind of keep stuff the way
there it is. But really it highlights what people with
(12:44):
disabilities have to deal with on a daily basis, stuff
that you and I don't even really think about. You know,
when I this is probably just a coincidence, but when
I the week that I was doing the notes for
this class for the disabilities topic, we'd gone Kevin. I
had gone to a plant shop in Portland. We were
out there for probably like we're eating somewhere or whatever,
(13:05):
and we went to this plant shop that we'd been
to before. So we went to it and as we
walked in, I saw a sign that said, like ADA
compliant entrance this way. And I don't know if I
would have realized that if you know, we hadn't been.
I hadn't been getting ready for this topic. So just
stuff that we just don't think about unless you think
about it. It's just not something that impacts us every day.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I didn't really ever start thinking about this stuff, and
I know it's a very different situation. But the thing
that got me to think about it more was having
a baby and having a stroller. And it's nice to
have ADA entrances for the stroller so you don't have
to like lift the stroller. But I realized how many
places still are not ADA compliant, how many places that
(13:48):
you can't roll up onto with the stroller. And I thought,
I thought we fixed this. I thought we had entrances
for everyone, accessibility for everyone, but there's still a ton
of places that I was like, wow, Wow, this is
a huge asshole for a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
And if it's not something that impacts you, then then
it doesn't You don't know, yeah, you don't.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Think about it. And surprisingly enough too this week, on
one of my drive homes from work, I was sitting
at a stoplight and a woman in a wheelchair was
trying to cross the street. But it was really snowy
out and so of course everyone shoveled their sidewalks. Everyone
shoveled their what's right in front of their businesses, all
(14:30):
onto the street and all onto the crosswalk. So this
poor woman was in em manual wheelchair just trying to
trudge through the snow and then got up and was like,
couldn't get over the street curb on. So she's just
like in the street struggling. So I started getting out
of my car to go try and help her, but
(14:51):
before I could, she flipped her wheelchair around and started
going backwards up the curb and like fighting her way
through through the snow and did it on her own.
And I just thought that was so resourceful. She's obviously
done this before and trying to live a world in
a wheelchair. And you know, more power Tour for having
(15:12):
some good strategies. But all those little things throughout life
that most people take for granted, people struggle with on
a daily basis. So since we both primarily work with teens,
we also have to consider what's being done in schools
to protect kids and teens with disabilities. So this is
really where our jobs have the most to do with
(15:34):
this subject. And this mostly comes in two different things
and individualized education Plans i EPs and five oh fours.
So people with a disability are entitled to extra help
in school through either an IEP or a five oh four.
So we want to go through what those specifically are.
(15:57):
So for an IEP. So, for a long time, students
with disabilities were not given any additional supports in schools
and historically were not allowed to attend public schools, which
limited their educational options to private school or home instruction.
But following Brown versus the Board of Education in nineteen
fifty four, parents of students with disabilities began to bring
(16:19):
lawsuits against their schools districts for excluding and segregating children
with disabilities. What an unintended consequences of such a major
lawsuit in our country. In nineteen sixty five, Congress enacted
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act the EESA. This act
helped provide resources to school districts to help ensure that
(16:43):
students with disabilities had access to quality education.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
The Education of the Handicapped Act replated that replaced the
EESA in nineteen seventy. It established a new grant program
that further provided educational resources and programs for students with disability.
The IEP or the individualized Education plan as we know it,
was first introduced to school systems when the right of
students with disabilities to attend public schools were legally recognized
(17:10):
under the Education for All Handicapped Children the EHA in
nineteen seventy five, So really kind of like the ADA,
the IEPs are a relatively new thing. The law contained
the first requirements for the development of an IP for
students with disabilities requiring special education services, and then an
amendment was added in nineteen ninety seven, again really not
(17:31):
that long ago, that required individualized transition planning for students
with an IEP, and then another amendment in two thousand
and four that required early intervention for students, greater accountability
and improve educational outcomes, and raise the standards for instructors
who teach special education classes. So some relatively new things
in the world of education in terms of helping students
(17:54):
with disabilities have the rights that they deserve.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
And I know that it seems like niche note, but actually,
when I was studying for my boards, one of these
questions popped up and said, what replaced the EESA in
nineteen seventy I know, yeah, when I was reading these
show notes, I was like, I kind of remembered that
I didn't remember the exactly answer. I was like, ah,
like I had to kind of study this and learn this.
(18:19):
I know in this show, we like to tell you
about how this relates to our jobs, and i EPs
are a huge part of my job. We ask every
single patient that comes through our office do you have
an IEP? Do you have a five le four? And
if we are diagnosing someone with a mental health diagnosis,
that will qualify for an IP. Particularly ADHD is probably
(18:41):
the one that we have the most, but you can
also get an IP for depression. You can also get
an IEP for anxiety. I write a ton of letters
telling the schools in the school district, like, please evaluate
the student for an IP. I think it would be
a great So it's helpful sometimes to have a letter
from a doctor, especially if it's a doctor that's diagnosed
(19:01):
you with those things. If anyone's in a position where
they feel like their child needs an IEP, doctors can
help write that letter to get that process going in
case anyone's curious.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
The thing for me that was eye opening when I
first started working in a school, and maybe it's just
our school but with just how many people were on
a five h four are an iap it's a lot
more common than I think I assumed. I think back
to my time in high school. I don't know if
I knew anybody that was on a five h four
plan and then IPS, and I'm sure it did, but
maybe I just didn't notice. So it's a lot more
(19:33):
common than people think like it is. It's a thing
that's out there. Even think of this. It's it's so
that's for like primary secondary education, right elementary through high school. Well,
there's people who go to college and need student services.
That's basically the upper education higher education equivalent of five
oh four's and IEPs, At least from my understanding, I
(19:55):
know people have those. So it's a lot more common
than I think we we assume it is so.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
And then on the flip side of that, where we'll
talk a little bit about five oh four plans, which
are similar also get kids extra resources in school, but
five oh fours tend to focus more on accommodations for
students with disabilities to ensure access and equality in the
general education environment, while IEPs provide specialized instruction and services
(20:23):
for students with specific disabilities. The key difference is that
the IEP falls under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
the idea, while the five oh four are part of
the Rehabilitation Act of nineteen seventy three. There are also
several states who want to remove this section five oh four.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
I remember I.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Had an attending explain it to me in very general terms,
as five oh four can be so much more general.
So IEPs tend to be for specific disabilities. There's like
thirteen specific things it can before, but if five O
four can be much more general, so like if someone
has a seizure disorder and needs extra accommodations in school
(21:05):
to help them get through and manage their seizure disorder,
that would probably be more along the lines of a
five oh four, Whereas if someone had ADHD, that would
fall more under an IEP as a general example.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
And you can still even have ADHD and have a
five oh four plan. It all really kind of depends
on the accommodations. And yeah, I think I think you're
really right on the five o fours and being more
generalizable in terms of like the accommodations. It's basically I
try to think of it as like you mentioned it
in the notes. But just like iaps specialized instruction with
(21:37):
specialized time with specialized instructors along with general education, but
there also might be things where they have to modify
things for certain classes and things that they can do.
Whereas like a five to oh four is here are
the accommodations that help you access a general education without
things needed to be modified, without things needed to be changed,
things like can take a break as needed, things like
(22:00):
is able to have extended time on tests or example,
you know, things like that. So yeah, I think you're
right on there, But really you might be wondering why
we're kind of talking about all This's why it's so important.
A lot of reasons why, especially if you're a provider,
it's good to know about these things, especially if you
work with kids and teens. But really, one thing that's
been coming that's been becoming more and more apparent in
(22:21):
my class that I've been teaching, is that things are
changing very quickly, or at least they look like they're
changing very quickly. With this new presidential administration, things are
just flying in and out right. How many executive orders
have been signed since January twentieth or January twenty first, right,
things have changed very quickly. You know, actually this week
that the week that we had the class on disabilities
(22:43):
developmental unacquired, my Monday section had their current events and
talked about how federal funding was beginning to freeze, right
because for certain things. The next day my Tuesday section
said how it was no longer frozen, right, So shit
was changing within twenty four hours. I think even in
my Monday section had stopped being classed and said something
(23:03):
changed already. So things are flying left and right, and
it's really important to just know what has been in
place and what may be challenged. Right, there's also concerns.
Concerns basically can continue with the potential dissolving of the
Education Department, who provide the fundings for things IPS and
five bell fours. And then also as mental health professionals,
(23:25):
it's really important that we know how to support our
clients and patients and getting the services and supports they need.
Just like Justin talked about, a letter from Justin is gold, right,
a letter from a doctor is gold in terms of
being able to get those things in place. You know,
I work our school counselors, they're the case manager for
our five O four plans, and they need a medical
statement to get the process started. If you're going to
(23:47):
move to an IP, there's testing from like the school
psychologists and other things on the educational side, but there's
also a diagnosis. So a letter from a mental health
professional can really go a long way in helping advocate
for our clients to get the things that they need.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
And I've seen it so many times in my patients.
Kids are struggling, We get them on the right treatment,
but they also get a five or four or an
i EP in place, and school turns around. They finally
get the support the things that they need to succeed
in school. So being able to succeed in school helps
you so much in life. If you can graduate from
high school, if you would have struggled and dropped out,
(24:24):
if you're able to graduate, that increases your quality of life,
It increases the amount of money you can make. It
can change your entire life getting that help early in school.
So we are big believers in these programs, which is
why it's so scary that Trump has said multiple times
that he wants to get rid of the Department of Education,
because if that funding drives up, then that program essentially
(24:46):
stops from our perspective, horrifying. That's really, it's really scary.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
One thing I do want to say, and not really
that makes me hopeful, But and no, not that it
makes me hope. I don't know. I guess I'm just
thinking of organ specifically. Right, Like, I saw a chart
in a map that basically said, like how much federal
funding do certain states take in? And I just say
hopeful for me? And I'm being selfish because I live
(25:14):
in Oregon. Oregon isn't getting a huge chunk of federal funding.
Like it's not like fifty percent. It was maybe in
like the ten or fifteen percent range, which is still
a sizable chunk that needs to be made up. But
it's something that we can probably work through. If you know,
catastrophe strikes and there's no longer any funding that way.
What's really fucked up and really sucks is it looks
(25:37):
like a lot of the states that may have potentially
voted for Donald Trump are the ones that are really
going to get be impacted. Right. A lot of the
states in the Midwest, a lot of these states that
use and need a lot of these services and resources
and maybe aren't realizing that they've used these resources and
services and basically voted against their own well being. I
(25:57):
went on a long talk with my students a few
weeks ago, basically, like, our job as clinicians is not
to change someone's mind, is not to change their values
and things that they believe in. Our job is to
listen and to be there to support them and to
try to understand where they're coming from. And I tell
you know, I can understand. I'll be fine going on
the record saying that, like I can try to understand
(26:18):
where someone comes from if they're voting for someone like
Donald Trump of like feeling like their needs are going
to be met. I can try to understand that. I
don't agree with it, but I can try to understand that.
So that's why it really sucks when you see things
like this and seeing where what states are going to
be impacted, and a lot of them. The Venn diagram
of states that voted for Donald Trump and states that
are going to be largely impacted by cuts like this,
(26:41):
it's almost a perfect circle. And that's not great.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Saw. It was like Kentucky, Texas, a lot of Southern
states and Midwest states, the ones that tend to lean
red are the ones that use and receive them most
funding from the Department of Education, so they're going to
be impacted the mouse.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
So yeah, even just a part of education, right, we're
thinking about Medicare, Medicaid foods down CBT, yes hard.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Most recent proposed budget in the House had like an
eight hundred billion cuts to Medicaid. It's like, oh, my good,
people are going to really suffer. So Eddie and I
are scared the star just because we care about people
and these policies impact people. And I know that I
(27:30):
have some friends who work at the VA and Elon
Musk even posted that meme about federal workers like crying
about the Doge Department, and it's like, no, they're crying
because you're ruining their lives, man, Like, these people are
hard working, these people are sacrificing their time to help veterans,
(27:52):
and you're treating them like second class citizens and their
jobs need to be cut. And so yeah, I don't know,
we're starting to get off the rails here and get
too political. But it's just like, boy, I wish we
could just treat people like human beings, like their people.
So when we talk about accommodation, what do we actually mean,
(28:16):
like the type of accommodations that kids can get in school.
These are things like providing a private space in case
they need to calm down, in case they need to
have their own space to get their school work.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Done, things like reducing distractions. And actually, I want to
go a step further. This is not just for kids
and teens, but even workplace accommodations. Right under the ADA,
you're entitled to reasonable accommodations. So I think that's the
best part of what I was putting. This is a
lot of these can be flexed. This could be for
kids and teens, or this could be for adults working.
(28:48):
So a lot of things that are.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Possible flexibility with work schedule. And boy, that's a really
helpful one with kids with ADHD because they tend to
have a hard time remembering to turn stuff in, So
if you give them a more flexible deadline, then they're
more likely to just get stuff turned in when it
works for them.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Providing additional technology, so that can be things like recording devices,
speak to text programs on work computers. I actually had
a coworker whose hands were impacted by something. They had
some type of disability where they're find motor functioning had
been impacted for a while, and they had a text
they had to speak to text program for writing their
(29:28):
progress notes and all of their notes for work, So
that helped them a lot to not be behind on
anything and not feeling like they need to type everything out.
They had the program on their computer up thanks.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
We have identifying and reducing triggers.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Pretty straightforward one that I think, yeah, work or at school.
And then the last one which will take us to
our last topic for today, is a support animal. So
if you're in the mental health field or you're just
a consumer or a person outside of it that has
been living in this world, you've probably noticed that there's
people with animal with them that do some type of
(30:02):
or have some type of role, and those the two
types of animals are a service animal or an emotional
support animal or an ESA. We figured it would be
good to close with this to just kind of give
you some examples of what they do and what they're
there for, and just to to know like what kind
of protections you have. So a service animal, they're typically dogs,
(30:23):
are starting to perform a specific task to help somebody
with a disability. Do you know what the other animal
is that's allowed to be a service animal?
Speaker 1 (30:31):
I'm blank? And what is it?
Speaker 2 (30:33):
A miniature horse?
Speaker 1 (30:36):
I have heard about the I didn't. I wasn't sure
though if it was the emotional support animal or if
it's an actual service animal.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Yeah. I had to look it up a couple of times.
That's what the notes told me. If someone wants to
fact check me, leave us a comment.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
But that's what Yeah, I'd love to you know, if
I were blind, I would want a seeing Shetland pony.
I think that would be really.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
In terms of an emotional support animal, it's an animal
that provides therapeutic benefit to an individual with a mental
health disorder. This is a lot broader, and you can
see different things like cat's dogs, a fish, even for
someone like in college, just different things. What's really important
to know and what we want providers to remember, is
(31:20):
that service animals are included under the ADA, but unfortunately
emotional support animals are not, so that really can lead
to some issues if people don't understand their rights. It's
important to know the difference. It's important, especially if you're
a treatment provider or clinician, to know that you know
if you're going to write a letter for someone for
an emotional support animal and support of them, just knowing
(31:41):
that there may be some liability. And I don't say
that to scare anybody. I say that more to say
that emotional support animals are very it's an unregulated entity,
whereas service animals are very regulated. So just knowing that
going into it, just knowing that there's a lot of
people with bogus websites out there that just write letters
willing know and get them out to people, and people
(32:02):
spend their hard earned money trying to get an emotional
support animal letter and get up end up being scammed.
And there's just a lot. So it's really just important
to know the differences and what you can do as
a provider, what you can do to support people who
may need one of each of them.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
I do work with a lot of people with emotional
support animals, and I would say probably about like a
quarter of them say that their emotional support animals end
up being more anxious then the people who need them.
And like the emotional support animals need their own emotional
support animals. They're like old pippins are really anxious puppy.
You need to be some puppy Brozaic.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
It could be hard to take them out there, you know,
into the world every single day. You know, a lot
of dogs and animals I think enjoy there alone time.
So yeah, I've heard of that too. I'll wrap up
with the take home message and playing us out if
you want to also give a takehold message justin Really,
it's just important that we're aware of what's going on.
We need to know how to best support our clients
(32:57):
and patients especially and unfortunately if resources and supports may
be taken away. So it's just the more you know,
the better.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
My take home point would be that everyone should be
treated like a human. A lot of these laws, a
lot of these things that we've talked about today are
just an attempt to try and get people an equal
and level playing field, get them the access to the
things that everyone else already has. So it can change
(33:25):
people's lives in such a profound and dramatic way, and
I think everyone should get behind I EPs five oh
four's the ADA. There's a lot of really cool things
that we've been able to do, and hopefully we don't
move backwards.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Yes, with that, thank you all for listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
Wherever you get your podcasts you can find us. Feel
free to leave us a five star review, leave us
a comment, we'd love to see it. You can find
us on social media at Millennium mayc and at our
website millennialimac dot com. Shout out Australia and remember take
(34:00):
care of all mentals.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Ozzi, yozzi, yozzi, oh yoi oi
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