April 25, 2017
There are organizations in Tennessee doing great work around healthcare access. Connecting our community of supporters with those organizations and resources is a great place to start.
April 10, 2017
Through a decision on March 22, 2017, the Supreme Court set a higher standard for educating students with disabilities. Read more about this decision and what it means for advocates from one of DRT's Senior Attorneys.
March 21, 2017
Supported decision-making is a new national best practice for supporting individuals in making life decisions while maintaining their rights to make those decisions. The white paper "Supported Decision-Making: Creating a Continuum of Choice" examines this practice in detail.
March 21, 2017
AT DRT we enthusiastically embrace self-determination, the fundamental right to exert control over our lives. This month, Lisa discusses supported decision-making and why DRT is advocating for this as an option to improve decision making and overall quality of life for Tennesseans with disabilities.
March 16, 2017
Everyone already uses supporters to help make important, and even mundane, decisions. I consult my fiancée about literally everything, and when it’s a bigger decision my family gets involved too. We all engage in this scenario on a daily basis without giving it much thought. Because of this, I couldn’t understand the need to pass SDM legislation. If everybody was already doing it, what was the need?
February 28, 2017
According to the Brain Injury Association of America, each year an estimated 2.4 million children and adults in the United States sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI), and another 795,000 individuals sustain an acquired brain injury (ABI) from nontraumatic causes. To raise awareness of traumatic brain injury, the Brain Injury Association of America recognizes National Brain Injury Awareness Month every March.
February 23, 2017
Service animals play crucial roles in their owner’s lives. For Tricia Griggs, a DRT advocate for almost 15 years, she explains that the relationship between owner and service animal extends much deeper than the exchange of a service.
February 21, 2017
For the majority of his life Greg Burt has been a protector, both in his military service and as a firefighter and emergency medical technician for the City of Murfreesboro. When Greg learned that he was experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), he turned toward man's best friend for help.
January 17, 2017
Too often schools, which can play a critical role in identifying and treating mental health conditions, are not adequately prepared to address this issue. Lisa shares how DRT responds to this problem by working with individual students and their families and with school systems in the state to implement a systemic approach to ensure that students receive needed services.