3,181 Comments Posted by Lynne

Fabulous lighting!

[muffled chortles of silently shaking giggles]

It's just you. :-)

I would suggest that rather than "taking a good portion of time out of your day" to read all these dreary comments it might be easier to hit the "Hide Comments" button. Some of us are looking beyond the art and into the reality that the art reflects, although by your comments I see that you don't seem to "approve" of it. The fact that this "artwork" is the product of a universe that was real is probably uncomfortable for a lot of people, and is one of the reasons the "Hide Comments" option was installed.

None of us have the ability to "give others permission to interpret things as they like" - but it's always better to give people some objective reality if you happen to know something about it than it is to let people run off half-cocked with bizarre ideas from things they have never personally experienced but have just decided "must be." That isn't "art" - that is "drama pretending to be art that doesn't want to bother with reality because it might be uncomfortable."

I personally believe that everyone who can SHOULD live in the community if there are enough resources to make that happen. However, the cost of being institutionalized versus living in the community is close to equal at this point. That is because the majority of people who first moved from the institutions to the community were people with more supports and more skills. People who currently live in institutional facilities have fewer skills overall and a significantly higher rate of behavioral, medical, and physical challenges.

When we finally move everyone out, and I am confident we eventually will, the costs - which are running neck and neck now - will shift to being more expensive to live in the community. However, I personally think it is worth it for everyone to have better access to the community, even though physical integration doesn't equal social integration, as we have seen in the research.

I do disagree, however, about abuse being detected more quickly in the community. There is little support for this as far as facts and figures, and in fact, at this point the institutions have a higher reporting rate and for smaller injuries and incidents. That is due to the fact that there are more people at a facility who are able to see our folks whereas in most community placements you have fewer people who work longer shifts and the turnover rate means that you will have a whole new set of staff every year, on the average. The turnover rate in the community is between 100% and 150%. In the facility where I work it is around 15%. That can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing, but it does mean that there are more people who are familiar with our folks and because we have roving crews of staff who monitor living areas and check out nursing logs and injury reports (like me) I can spit you back info on who has had how many injuries, when, what they were, how serious they were, and whether the rate or pattern dictates a review or an investigation. Resources are way too scattered in the community for that to occur.

At the same time, I think it's worth the cost to go community. Now if someone could just convince our funding agencies that this is the way to go . . .

Hannah,

That isn't what happened. :-)

Aaaah! That explains it! :-)

Eeeek!!!!!!!

"Gone condo." ;-)

Hi, Advocate,

Peace, my friend. :-)

From Selete:
"Perhaps that's why it had a bad effect on the rats. Was there a control group given 'healthy' plasma and cerebro-spinal fluid? Considering that humans often can't take blood from other HUMANS (depending on blood type,) I imagine blood from another animal could be very harmful!"


Yes, they compared the effects of blood from a control group of "healthy" humans as well. Quotation from article summary:

"Comparisons of the effect of plasma from 80 psychotic patients and 82 nonpsychotic subjects, including both general hospital patients and normal subjects, showed a marked and highly significant difference between the two groups."

Hi, Joy 1,

Go in peace. :-)

Tabby,

See comments under: http://www.opacity.us/...62_shower_stalls.htm

Jeebers, this is one great shot - love the perspective, love the colors, love the lighting!

Oh jeebers, I love this shot! The lighting is killer!