Freelance Writer
Contributor to The Washington Post,
Miami Herald, and Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Falls Church, Virginia
Topic: Aging parents of children with mental illnesses.
Published Work:
First-Ever Meeting Focuses on Gay Mental Health
At the start of every school year when she was a teenager, Paula Lafferty, 37, said she was like every other teen, pledging to get good grades and hoping to get picked for sports teams. But two things set her apart from her peers: her bisexuality and her depression
Faiths Rethink Stance on Suicide
The Rev. Charles Rubey, a priest with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago, recently talked with a mother whose son had committed suicide. The woman poured out her grief to him. But what made her anguish even more excruciating, Father Rubey said, was the insensitive way in which people responded to her pain.
Who Will Care for Their Children? Aging Parents Worry About Mentally Ill Sons & Daughters Whom They Leave Behind
For more than 25 years, Ned and Nancy Schaefer have worried about one of their sons, who suffers from schizophrenia.
On the other, there are the icons that some of us who are disabled have come to derisively call "supercrips." (No disrespect intended. After all, we're talking among ourselves.) And they set quite a standard. All of my life, people have assumed that I should be able to sing -- and possibly play the piano -- like Ray Charles, even though I am tone-deaf.
We're in the midst of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and such awareness is needed now more than ever in this brutal economy.
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