The author describes a collaborative project involving a textiles and clothing specialist, an occupational therapist, and a wheelchair-bound disabled woman to design and construct an apron that facilitated independence in daily living for the disabled woman. (Author/CH)

Describes a program for families of handicapped children that features educational programs and parent and sibling support groups. Notes that parents and siblings involved in the mutual-help project have uncovered salient issues and have taken an active role in community education and advocacy. (Author/NB)

The author reports an account of the method of self-therapy that he haltingly evolved over the years when faced with sensory disabilities. It presents a personal account of the tortuous routes in the evolution of this method and his confrontation with religion, work, self, middle age, death, others, marriage, and image of old age. The self-therapy…

Reports on a training package that taught four consumers with physical, learning, or psychiatric disabilities how to write advocacy letters. The research design included baseline and training, and posttraining conditions. Results suggest that an action letter training program may enhance advocacy letter writing skills to address specific problems.…

The important role of the self-help approach in helping persons deal with medical, emotional, and practical effects of a sudden disability is considered in a discussion of the work of the Spinal Injuries Association in Britain. Services that can be provided and controlled by disabled persons are described. (Author/CB)

"Parent to Parent" is a telephone-contact self-help group for families of special needs children. Support parents are recruited and trained to provide counseling to other parents. Professionals lead the training course, which focuses on listening, understanding, and action planning. Parents carry out the support group's administrative…

Described is an empowerment and self-advocacy training program for individuals with disabilities and parents of young children with disabilities, called Partners in Policymaking. Discussed are first-year activities, program evaluation data from participants, and both quantitative and qualitative short-term outcome data collected from first-year…

This article describes the use of measures of functional assessment of essential activities in self-care, mobility, communication, and social cognition in preschool children. An overview of functional assessment is provided, and psychometric properties of the various tests are described. Case studies illustrate the value of using functional…

The paper describes the Early Childhood Handicapped Program of Kenosha (WI). The program focuses on receptive and expressive language, fine and gross motor skills, self-help skills, cognitive skills, perceptual skills, and social/emotional skills development. For admission into the program, children must exhibit significant delays in two or more…

This report describes the proceedings of a three-day workshop on community-based rehabilitation (CBR) models and training in India. The workshop included 72 professionals from India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Sessions and papers from the workshop are summarized and address the following topics: (1) a training module for the…

Self-help among low-income people is vitally important. In no area is self-help more important than in overcoming poverty's burdens and energizing the escape from poverty. This document comprises an inventory of self-help and mutual-help programs that feature active involvement of members of the low-income population. The programs in this…