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Merger of Leading Autism Organizations Will Lead to Enhanced Research, Treatment and Advocacy Programs

( NEW YORK, NY – November 29, 2006) – Autism Speaks and Cure Autism Now (CAN) have signed a memorandum of understanding to combine operations, uniting the nation's two leading autism organizations and their cutting-edge programs for research, biomedical treatment and advocacy. The merger was announced today by Mark Roithmayr, president of Autism Speaks, and Peter Bell, president and chief executive officer of CAN. Due diligence and final board approvals are expected to be concluded by February 1, 2007. The consolidated organization will be known as Autism Speaks, Inc.

The consolidation of the two non-profit organizations will provide the scale necessary to respond to the crisis of autism, the nation's fastest-growing developmental disorder. Both groups share a commitment to accelerate and fund biomedical research into the causes, prevention, treatments and cure for Autism Spectrum Disorders; to increase awareness of the disorder; and to improve the quality of life of affected individuals and their families.

“Autism Speaks and Cure Autism Now believe that a combined organization will attract more resources and facilitate large-scale research, while providing the funding necessary to launch planned clinical and quality-of-life programs. A single entity will foster collaboration among the best scientific minds and most dedicated advocates. This is how we will reach our common mission -- finding a cure for autism,” said Bell and Roithmayr in a joint statement.

“Since their founding, Autism Speaks and CAN have committed more than $80 million to autism research and education, established scientific resources, promoted awareness and led federal advocacy efforts,” said Bob Wright, co-founder and board chairman of Autism Speaks. “During the past year, we have worked closely with CAN on critical issues facing the autism community, and now we will truly be able to combine our efforts and passions toward our common goals.”

“When we started CAN ten years ago, they told us you can't hurry science,” said Jonathan Shestack, co-founder of Cure Autism Now. “But with an extraordinary group of committed families and scientists we created a field from scratch and proved that, indeed, you can hurry science. In this next chapter, with Autism Speaks, we intend to move further and faster.”

Autism Spectrum Disorders are diagnosed in one in 166 children, with four times as many boys than girls affected. Autism has increased tenfold in the last decade. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have called autism a national public health crisis.

The combined organization will maintain both Cure Autism Now's and Autism Speaks' national walk programs and professional staffs. The scientific research processes, advisory boards and protocols of each entity will be integrated and flagship CAN programs, including the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE), Autism Treatment Network (ATN), Clinical Trials Network (CTN) and Innovative Technology for Autism (ITA), will be expanded.

CURE AUTISM NOW
Cure Autism Now is an organization of parents, clinicians and leading scientists accelerating research to prevent, treat and cure autism – for individuals and families today, and for future generations. Cure Autism Now is a leading private funder of biomedical research in autism, providing more than $35 million for research grants, education, outreach and scientific resources. Cure Autism Now has chapters across the country with national headquarters in Los Angeles. More information about Cure Autism Now can be found at www.cureautismnow.org.

ABOUT AUTISM SPEAKS
Autism Speaks is dedicated to increasing awareness of the growing autism epidemic and to raising money to fund scientists who are searching for a cure. The organization was founded in February 2005 by Suzanne and Bob Wright. Bob Wright is Vice Chairman and Executive Officer, General Electric, and Chairman and CEO, NBC Universal. Autism Speaks and the National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR) combined operations in February 2006, bringing together two of the leading organizations dedicated to accelerating and funding biomedical research into the causes, prevention, treatments and cure for autism spectrum disorders; to increasing awareness of the nation's fastest growing developmental disorder; and to advocating for the needs of affected families. To learn more about Autism Speaks, please visit www.autismspeaks.org

All of Dan’ s Age of Autism work can be found at this link http://www.theageofautism.com

The Age of Autism: 'Problems' in CDC data

By Dan Olmsted
UPI Senior Editor

WASHINGTON , Dec. 11 (UPI) -- For three years, the CDC has used a study conducted on its own Vaccine Safety Datalink to reassure parents that mercury in vaccines does not cause autism. Now a panel of government-appointed experts says there are "serious problems" with exactly the approach the CDC took.

"I think what we're saying is that (study) wasn't the last word and that things need to be looked at again and perhaps with different methodology," chairwoman Irva Hertz-Picciotto told Age of Autism, which obtained a copy of the panel's report.

Critics said that renders reassurances about the mercury preservative, called thimerosal, unconvincing.

"How can health authorities, with a straight face, claim they have any evidence proving no connection after this report?" asked J.B. Handley, co-founder of Generation Rescue, an advocacy group that believes autism is essentially mercury poisoning by another name.

"This is analogous to our government not finding WMD in Iraq after reassuring the world they would. It's a loss of credibility, and we are back at square one."

The study -- often called the Verstraeten study for its principal author, Dr. Thomas Verstraeten -- used the Vaccine Safety Datalink maintained by the CDC to extract information from records kept by three health maintenance organizations. On its Web site, the CDC says: "(T)he results from this study suggest there is not a 'cause and effect' relationship between thimerosal and autism or ADD (attention deficit disorders)."

But the database has weaknesses -- including different ways of diagnosing autism at different HMOs -- that make it hard to draw broad conclusions, the experts said.

"The panel identified several serious problems that were judged to reduce the usefulness of an ecologic study design using the VSD to address the potential association between thimerosal and the risk" of autism, according to the report. An ecologic study -- analyzing groups rather than individuals -- was the approach the CDC used.

"We actually just got the report and haven't had a chance to assess it," CDC spokesman Glen Nowak said Monday. "Our Office of Science will be working with our Immunization Safety Office in terms of where and how this fits into our research agenda. We've got a couple of other studies under way."

Nowak said that the agency is working to eliminate all remaining thimerosal-containing shots as soon as possible, "so it wouldn't change where we want to go there, either."

He added that limitations of the study were acknowledged by Verstraeten -- who subsequently said its findings were "neutral" and required follow-up. Nowak said several studies support the safety of thimerosal, and he noted the expert panel suggested other ways to look for a possible connection using the database, including comparisons of siblings of those diagnosed with autism.

The panel was convened last May at Congress's request by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health. Congress wanted an independent opinion about whether the CDC's Vaccine Safety Datalink could be used to compare autism rates and vaccine mercury before and after thimerosal was phased out beginning in 1999.

That wouldn't work, the panel said, partly because of changes over time, but also because of problems with the data.

"I think there's more work to be done," said Hertz-Picciotto, a professor in the Department of Public Health at the University of California-Davis School of Medicine. She added it's unlikely that autism rates will decline significantly anytime soon.

"It's an 'open question' whether anything about vaccines -- timing, dose, preservative -- is related to the rise in diagnoses," she said.

The study was one of five key epidemiological studies cited by the prestigious Institute of Medicine when it concluded in 2004 that the evidence is against a link between thimerosal and autism.

But Hertz-Picciotto said several of those studies had more problems than the one conducted with CDC data.

"Some studies are stronger than others. The Verstraeten study was an improvement on other studies including the two in Denmark, both of which had serious weaknesses in their designs that limit what we can learn from them," she said.

David Kirby, author of the book "Evidence of Harm" on the controversy over thimerosal and autism, said the Institute of Medicine report -- intended to bring the mercury-autism debate to a close -- is on shaky ground as well.

"This is a strong blow at the very foundation of the 2004 IOM report, which builds its conclusion against causation largely on this (CDC vaccine safety) database.

"I would also point out that all the weaknesses cited by the NIH (expert panel) were highlighted long ago by members of SafeMinds," a group that opposes mercury in medicine.

Kirby said that in 1999, while the CDC's research was under way, SafeMinds' Lyn Redwood met with Verstraeten and raised the same issues: "under-ascertainment of cases, misreporting of data, ignoring prenatal exposure and a 25 percent exclusion rate" of children listed in the databases.

Kirby predicted the Institute of Medicine will now face increased pressure to take a fresh look at thimerosal and autism.

The expert panel's Hertz-Picciotto said research into autism has barely begun.

"We know there's a major genetic component to autism, but genes cannot explain a rise over a short time period of a few decades," she said.

"We also know that environment plays a significant part, and the scientific community is just beginning to search for what those factors and exposures are."

The Age of Autism: What Newsweek missed

By Dan Olmsted
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-2006112
0-16120900-bc-ageofautism.xml

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Newsweek's cover story this week is about what happens to autistic kids when they grow up. The magazine does a good job of pointing to funding gaps and the plight of parents who can only imagine what will happen to their kids after they're gone.

But Newsweek fails to confront a key issue, one that bedevils mainstream publications every time they write about autism: Is it really increasing? Or are we just doing a better job of diagnosing the disorder?

Newsweek, without exactly saying it, comes down on the side of better diagnosis. " ... (M)ore sophisticated epidemiology has revealed the true magnitude of the problem," the magazine says. It also suggests the increase coincided with parents banding together "to raise awareness of a once rarely diagnosed, often overlooked disease."

Yet in a sidebar, Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, says that as a psychiatrist in the 1970s he never saw a single person with autism. "In 1985, curiosity sent him searching; it took several phone calls to find a single patient," the article says.

Does today's "more sophisticated epidemiology" really square with Insel's experience? I don't believe it does; 1985 was hardly the dark ages of medical diagnosis. And autism was described as a distinct disorder more than 40 years before that -- concern already had arisen that it was becoming a trendy diagnosis, handed out too freely.

Yet Insel, obviously well-connected to the medical and psychiatric community, had to mount a virtual search party to find a single one?

The article goes on to say that NIMH is "newly interested in environmental factors that might set off the disorder in patients who are already genetically prone to it."

What does it mean to be "already genetically prone" to autism, yet have it triggered only after exposure to some outside factor? I'm not sure that makes sense. What does make sense is that some children might have a genetic inability to cope with that factor, triggering the "environmental insult" that leads to autism.

If such an exposure increased, it could certainly account for an increase in the autism rate. NIH officials are increasingly blunt about this, even if the media are not. At a recent meeting with a group of parents, according to several participants, the head of one NIH institute said: "There are no epidemic deniers here."

I'm told a second institute director said at another recent meeting that autism is primarily an "environmental" disease. An audience member's suggestion that genes alone explain the current rate was flatly dismissed by this official.

Because it doesn't connect the dots, Newsweek misses the point: We're in an epidemic, which is why the future of this generation is a crisis. The article's whole premise, however, inadvertently suggests the truth: There are now so many kids with autism -- "as many as 500,000 Americans under 21," the magazine says -- that caring for them as adults must be urgently addressed.

If there were already a comparable million-plus adults with the disorder, the issue would have been recognized years ago. To be sure, some autistic adults of all ages have been misdiagnosed over the years as retarded or mentally ill.

But if autism has held steady over the years, it shouldn't be hard to find thousands and thousands of clearly autistic people in their 30s, 40s, 50s -- even their 80s and 90s. The first child in the landmark 1943 study identifying autism, who was known as Donald T., is still alive at age 73. It was the striking uniqueness and novelty of such cases that prompted the study in the first place.

When NIMH's Insel went looking for cases in the 1980s, it seems autism was still pretty rare. It's not anymore -- as Newsweek points out, disorders on the autism "spectrum" now afflict as many as 1 in 166 children. Note: children. Where are the 1 in 166 autistic adults?

Until we stop ignoring the obvious, we're never going to stop this epidemic -- and find new and better treatments for people already afflicted.

And that's the most urgent issue of all.

The Age of Autism: Still's and Pink's

By Dan Olmsted
UPI Senior Editor

WASHINGTON , Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Does it matter that Donald T., the first child diagnosed with autism in the 1930s, also had a rare and mysterious autoimmune disorder that nearly killed him?

The disorder, called Still's disease, is a systemic form of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) in which the immune system inexplicably attacks the body. The cause is unknown but might be some kind of outside exposure like a virus, experts say.

As I've noted before, both Donald's arthritis and his autism appeared to improve significantly after treatment with gold salts, then a standard remedy for JRA. But doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where Donald and 10 other children were first diagnosed with the distinct disorder called autism, never seemed to notice the possible connection.

They credited gold salts with curing his JRA. But they believed the improvement in his autistic symptoms was due to an unlettered but loving farm couple Donald went to live with near his hometown in Mississippi -- at their suggestion. The clear implication was that Donald's own parents -- his father was a "brilliant" Yale-educated lawyer -- might have contributed to his autism through poor parenting or some other family dynamic. That kind of mistaken (and fundamentally arrogant) assumption has haunted the search for autism's cause ever since.

But back to Still's disease, which beset Donald in 1947 when he was 12 years old and living with that farm couple. According to my interview with his brother in 2004, Donald's sudden illness was so baffling that even the Mayo Clinic couldn't diagnose it. Instead, a doctor in a nearby town finally suggested JRA based on a conversation with Donald's father, who told him, "It looks like Don's getting ready to die."

Here's how Leo Eisenberg of Johns Hopkins described it in the 1956 scientific paper I recently came across:

"The (farm) boarding arrangement had to be terminated when Donald ... developed an undiagnosed illness manifested by fever, chills, and joint pains. He became bedridden and developed joint contractures. On the basis of a tentative diagnosis of Still's disease, he was placed empirically on gold therapy with marked improvement. ...

"The clinical improvement in his behavior, first observed during his rural placement, was accelerated during and after his illness and convalescence at home. He was able to enter and graduate from high school. At present he is doing well in his studies at a Junior College, where he was elected a class officer. He plans to attend a small local liberal arts college."

Put aside the glaring lack of interest in gold salts' possible impact on Donald's autism, and focus instead on how strange this situation was.

Because Donald's was the first case of autism ever formally diagnosed, trying to estimate its prevalence at the time is no easy thing. Suffice it to say that autistic children were rare; let's use the widely accepted early figure of 1 in 10,000 children (it's more like 40 per 10,000 today).

Now, how rare is Still's disease? It looks to be even rarer, but for simplicity's sake let's put it at 1 in 10,000 as well. Doing the math -- 10,000 times 10,000 -- suggests that having the two separate disorders just by chance is a 1-in-a-billion shot. Effectively, Donald would have been the only person in America in 1947 who just happened to have both.

And on top of that, he's autism's Case 1?

Oh, brother. This does not compute. In search of answers, I went back and looked up Still's disease. It's named for Sir George Frederic Still, an English physician who first described it in 1887. One of the characteristics was a peculiar, transient "salmon-pink" rash.

That reminded me of something -- Pink's disease. Pink's (also called Pink) was a mysterious and sometimes fatal affliction in children: "The symptoms include weepy red rash, peeling skin, lethargy, anaemia, sensitivity to light, respiratory distress and general ill health," according to the Pink Disease Support Group. Other sources refer to the "joint pains." It's fatal in about a quarter of cases.

And what caused Pink's?

"Pink Disease is babyhood mercury poisoning. Some babies are hyper-sensitive to mercury, and if those babies are exposed to mercury, they get Pink Disease. The most commonly used product containing mercury was teething powder, but other products frequently used on babies also contained mercury.

"After it was discovered that mercury was the cause of Pink Disease in 1947, mercury was removed from all teething powders and Pink Disease became rare."

An intriguing article from 1943 in the Journal of Pediatrics is titled "Pink Disease (Infantile Acrodynia)," the formal name of the disorder. One section begins, "The Nervous Child and Pink Disease. -- The manifestation of pink disease in older children ... has received comparatively little attention by the English-speaking word. ...

"It is of interest that such children as these are disturbed emotionally; they are 'nervous children' and ... they conform to the 'nervous child' syndrome. "

"The nervous child." I can't help but remember that the first scientific report of autism, by Leo Kanner at Hopkins, was in a journal called ... The Nervous Child. Nor can I forget how Donald's brother described the impact of the gold salts: "The nervous condition he was formerly afflicted with was gone. The proclivity toward excitability and extreme nervousness had all but cleared up."

It was, he said, a "miraculous response to the medicine."

I'm not suggesting Donald had Pink's disease. But I do wonder if his remarkable recovery across the board should have raised a lot more questions a long, long time ago.

By DAVID KIRBY - From Huffington Post

Next year, a “Special Master” in an obscure Federal court known only to a few Americans will preside over a highly sensitive judicial matter of urgent national importance. The Bush Administration wants to hold the hearings in a sealed courtroom, off limits to the press and public, with stiff “sanctions” for any outsider who attempts to gain unauthorized access to the secretive proceedings within.

Terror trials in faraway Gitmo? Good guess. But these are vaccine trials on New York Avenue, in downtown Washington, at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

You may not know it, but there is an official federal “vaccine court,”

where some 4,750 autism-related cases have been pending for years.

Claimants believe the mercury-based vaccine preservative, thimerosal, and/or the MMR vaccine, contributed to their children’s autism, and they are seeking compensation from a special vaccine injury fund administered by the federal government.

The long-awaited autism vaccine trial will commence on June 11 in the courtroom of Special Master George Hastings. The plaintiffs and their attorneys have asked for complete transparency in every aspect of the tribunal, including public disclosure of all evidence and unhindered media access to the hearings. The few autism families whose medical records will be scrutinized as legal examples are waiving their right to privacy and confidentiality, so that their stories may finally be told in an open court of law.

But the DOJ (technically, the “defense”) has other plans. On November 3, the Department wrote to Hastings saying it “would oppose public access to the courtroom and public broadcast of the trial,” because such an arrangement. “would pose security and privacy concerns” for those in attendance.

Exactly whose privacy are they trying to protect? It can’t be the parents, because they don’t want privacy. The only party fretting about privacy is the DOJ itself, and presumably, the vaccine makers.

(As for “security” concerns, isn’t that why we have court officers?).

The government may call this privacy, but I call it secrecy. In fact, there has been a long and unseemly history of secrecy when it comes to federal data on thimerosal and autism.

And let’s face it: People don’t hide something unless they have something to hide.

Back in 2002, Health and Human Services lawyers quietly slipped into vaccine court to file a protection order to permanently seal all thimerosal-related documents. They proposed sanctions for any lawyer who shared the secret government information with autism families, the public or the press. All thimerosal data would be banned from use in future civil cases, and any materials already given to plaintiffs would be rounded up by federal agents and destroyed. The motion was withdrawn after appropriate public outcry.

Many of those federal documents pertained to an off-limits database called the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD), which tracks the medical records of hundreds of thousands of American children. Lawyers for the families have tried to gain access to the VSD for years, including a 2004 “Motion to Compel” that went nowhere.

In 2005, the Institute of Medicine issued a report slamming the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which manages the VSD, for a “lack of transparency” in handling the data. Even more alarming, CDC officials testified that the original datasets they examined had “not been archived in a standard fashion,” meaning they were either lost, or destroyed. Take your pick.

If the disappearance of these datasets was intentional, that would be a clear violation of the federal Data Quality Act. No wonder the IOM urged vaccine officials to “seek legal advice” on the status of the missing records.

But those missing datasets could well have been a bonanza to attorneys for the autism parents. Now they are gone.

And, without access to any of the raw data to which government lawyers are privy, the families’ cases are woefully, and unconstitutionally, disadvantaged. In what other American court of law are defendants allowed access to evidence that is kept secret from plaintiffs?

Meanwhile, family lawyers have received 216,000 pages of discovery materials, sourced from federal agencies and private companies alike.

They might well paint an incriminating portrait of thimerosal’s role in autism, and that may be why individuals face a $250,000 penalty for any paper that is leaked.

But some documents have already been leaked, including one published in the Los Angeles Times showing that Merck officials knew of the cumulative and alarmingly high levels of mercury in vaccines way back in 1991, but said nothing about it to anyone.

Are there other incriminating memos from Merck (or Lilly or Glaxo, etc.)? My sources indicate that there are, but we may never get to see them. And now, by barring public access to the trial, we may never get to hear them, either.

If the DOJ has its way, only claimants and their attorneys will be allowed to sit in the courtroom, or receive password-enabled access to a live audio webcast of the trial. The media will be barred, and so will everyone else. And though there will be an official written transcript, such documents are sometimes redacted, or even sealed, after the trial.

As a journalist, I will be subject to “sanctions” if I sit in on a webcast without authorization from the court. In fact, unauthorized access to the proceedings, according to the DOJ proposal, might lead to “termination of the webcast and closing of the courtroom.”

What remains unclear is whether journalists will be prosecuted for interviewing families who have access to the webcast, or who attend the trial in person. But if I get arrested for hanging around outside the court with my pen and notepad, don’t blame me for trying.

Curiously, a final reason cited for barring reporters and others from vaccine court is that “opening the courtroom to the general public would make it more difficult for claimants themselves to attend.” I know plenty of parents who would gladly give up their seat for, say, Wolf Blitzer or Brian Williams, but the DOJ apparently hasn’t asked them.

I think it’s safe to say that the Bush Administration does not want this trial publicized. That seems curious to me. The entire thimerosal question will likely be left up to just one man: Special Master Hastings. Whether he decides for the parents, or for the DOJ, his ruling will forever be considered within a vacuum, subject to intense criticism from either side, unless he agrees that all thimerosal evidence should at long last be made public.

I hope he rules that his courtroom is not Guantanamo. These parents, and the public at large, deserve no less.

TACA is in great need for additional mentors throughout California. If TACA has helped you and you are a parent in the autism journey over one year – we could use your time and effort to mentor new families.

Remember the start of your journey? Parents struggle with where to start, resources in your area and just to have someone there to answer questions via phone or email about autism who underst ands what it is like to have a child affected. We could really use your assistance for these newbie families.

Typically the questions you will be asked are:

• What did you do for your child?
• What resources do you like (school resources, local autism non public agencies – like speech therapists / ABA providers and other providers)
• How to start biomedical treatments (again, you are not a doctor, just a friend providing suggestions and information about your journey.)
• How to start the Gluten free/Casein free diet (you may not be an expert here, but help them navigate the TACA web site and get them to the shopping list they can buy at their neighborhood store.)
• Support!!

Please remember: you don’t have to be an expert in all areas – what most people want is you to be a friend that underst ands how they feel. You don’t have to know the answers to all the questions. Just the place to start.

More about TACA mentors:

TACA has a parent mentor program that is available to TACA members in need. TACA parent mentors are volunteers located in your school district/neighborhood or are close by. These TACA volunteers wish to assist new families to help decrease their learning curve in many topics as it relates to Autism. The goal is getting all our children to the best they can be and in achieving the best possible outcome.

If this sounds of interest to you, I recommend you read:
Mentor Guidelines: http://www.tacanow.com/mentor_guidelines.htm

Mentor Program Frequently asked questions: http://www.tacanow.com/mentor.htm

Parent Mentor agreement: http://www.tacanow.com/mentor_agreement.pdf

Finally: How are mentors introduced? I introduce you to your mentor via email only once I receive the signed parent mentor agreement from the family that needs a parent mentor. It is up to you if you wish to meet or share phone numbers. Many families h andle the mentor relationship by email for the most part and some via the phone. The desired method of communication is up to you.

Over the past six years, I have mentored over 100 families. It has been the most rewarding time on my TACA journey. It can be for your family, too. If you wish to sign up to be a mentor, all you need to do is RESPOND YES to this request!

If you have questions or concerns and want to be a TACA mentor, always feel free to call me at 949-640-4401 or email me any time. Please remember if I have more TACA mentors like your family, I can do more to help families overall in California. Thank you for your time.

Autism Research Institute Latest Updates

1.  We recently uploaded two historical autism videos to www.Autism-RecoveredChildren.org. One video shows an ADOS (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule–Generic) assessment on an autistic child before and after DAN! biomedical intervention. The ADOS is considered by many to be the "gold standard" procedure to diagnose autism. According to Dr. Caroline Gomez, the co-Director of the Auburn University Autism Center, this is the first child in her 20-year career who lost an autism diagnosis. 

The second video, which is divided into four parts, contains the presentations from our Recovered Children Parent Forum. The forum was held last month at our Defeat Autism Now! Conference in Seattle, Washington. In the video, eight parents describe their children prior to DAN! biomedical intervention, list some of the treatments they tried, and then describe how their children are doing now.  Before-and-after films of the children are integrated throughout the videos.

2. We recently expanded our publication list. This includes the presentations from our Physician's Training course (4-DVD set) and the presentations from our Nurse's Training course (4-DVD set). We are also selling two new books, Stephen Shore's 'Understand Autism for Dummies' and Dr. Melvin Kaplan's 'Seeing Through New Eyes.'  Stephen Shore is an excellent writer with a good grasp of the issues that matter most to parents. Dr. Kaplan's work was recently described in our latest quarterly newsletter, the Autism Research Review International. To learn more about Dr. Kaplan's work, you can read Dr. Steve Edelson's interview with him at: http://www.autism.org/interview/kaplan.html

NO INTEREST Loans for Special Need Families (LA & Orange Counties)

Dear Families,

The Jewish Free Loan Association continues to provide a unique and invaluable resource to the Los Angeles Community, particularly through the Children with Special Needs Loan Fund. By offering interest-free loans up to $10,000, JFLA helps alleviate the financial strain that families face when caring for a child with special needs.

JFLA is a non-profit, non-sectarian agency founded in 1904, offering interest-free and fee-free loans for a variety of needs. The Children with Special NeedsLoan Fund helps residents of Los Angeles and Orange County with:

• Diagnostic Expenses;
• Therapy including speech and language, occupational, physical and behavioral;
• Funding for behavioral supports, shadows and/ or inclusion specialists;
• Providing a bridge loan to cover expenses while families await reimbursement from Regional Center.

JFLA continues to meet its original mission of helping people to help themselves. There is currently over $6 million in loans throughout the community, with a repayment rate greater than 99 percent.

If you or someone you know is in need of an interest-free loan, please contact us for more information. You can contact me directly by phone or email at (323) 761-8830 ext. 107 or at shelly@jfla.org.

Sincerely,
Shelly Meyers
Loan Analyst / Program Manager
Jewish Free Loan Association

Creative Solutions For Autism now provides Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) in Home Service.
With this service, a trained technician conveniently delivers and installs a portable, soft chamber in your home.  In addition, every treatment session is assisted by a qualified therapist, who oversees chamber operation for the duration of the treatment session, ensuring proper use and care.

What you need:

• A prescription from a physician
  Prescription should include the following:
• Patient’s name
• Total number of treatments recommended
• Total number of weekly sessions recommended

For more information, please contact Dr. Denise Eckman or Asha Bhakta at info@creativesolutionsforautism.com.

Please check back for updates next enews.

Special thanks to everyone with prayers, thoughts, cards and emails about my mom. Her passing leaves a huge hole in our family and your kindness has been very helpful. Thank you all.

And did you see the latest TACA “PRINTED” newsletter? It should be in your hands by now. If you are not on the TACA mailing list (and yes we do things besides email about 3-4 times a year), take the time and email us your information. Please email us:

Your address, city, state & ZIP Code
What school district you belong to

The year is rapidly coming to a close and I have a lot to be thankful for and look back to in my family. I am truly blessed. I also am thankful of the now 50 TACA families who have recovered children. We are fortunate that many of the traditional therapies and biomedically based interventions work for a lot of kids in improving their lives. We thoroughly rejoice for the children who have recovered and for their families. In the meantime, TACA has about 2,900 more children to go. You can expect in 2007 we will have a lot of work to do and it has been a pleasure to be the TACA team leader.

Your friend on the journey,

Lisa A, Jeff & Lauren’s mom, Glen’s wife

And Editor: Kim Palmer (thanks Kim!)

Web Page for TACA Group: www.tacanow.com
check it out and let us know your thoughts

Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) provides general information of interest to the autism community. The information comes from a variety of sources and TACA does not independently verify any of it. The views expressed herein are not necessarily TACA’s. TACA does not engage in lobbying or other political activities.

P.S. TACA e-new s i s now sent to 2,746 people! Number of TACA families we serve: 2,100