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mhm. Uh huh. Okay, Okay, Okay. Mhm. Yeah. You Yeah. Mhm. Hi, I'm Senator Lawton Child's, and I want to welcome you to the Lawton Child's update. Today. We're gonna look at AIDS, and we'll hear from some experts about what's being done in Florida to combat the killer disease.

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We'll also look at a new idea involving some senior citizens in Okaloosa County. But first, let's visit a program in Central Florida that's helping the severely disabled call computer programmer training for the disabled. It's located at Valencia Community College in Orlando. The students are highly motivated and bright, but because of their physical disabilities, they haven't been able to find jobs.

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The Valencia program has allowed students to learn a new skill that's very much in demand. Computer programming, Internet. The curriculum was developed by several Central Florida businesses. Course work is designed with business needs in mind. The aim is to create an atmosphere similar to what students could expect in their jobs.

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A business advisory council helps to select and evaluate the students. The council is made up of more than 30 upper level management executives involved in data processing. They come from companies such as IBM, Martin, Marietta, Disney, Harris and Westinghouse. The program consists of nine months of classroom training and a two month internship.

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Students are also given help in preparing their resumes and developing skills for job interviews. The program work. During the first three years, all the graduates were offered jobs. There are also unique. Beverly Chapman is the program director. She works with the advisory council and is responsible for the programs Day to day Operations.

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This program started about five years ago. This is our fifth class that began this past week. About 14 years ago, I had read about a program. Fisher Ville, Virginia at Woodrow Wilson Rehab. Yeah, and it was started with the help of the IBM Corporation. But And since that time, IBM has helped start about 30 programs that assembler two hours.

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The thing that keeps us makes us similar is that we're all directed and operated with the help of industry. Uh, this, uh, this program is one of four within the state of Florida. I just wanted Clearwater in Jacksonville and Miami. I think Sarda has more than any other state as men.

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Most of the training equipment is donated by members of the advisory council. Four times during the program, representatives from the sponsoring companies interview each student for an hour and a half. They then make progress reports to the program Director. What makes our program unique and really successful you're trying is our partnership with industry.

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Um Mm. Mhm. There are about 40 members of our business advisory council. They represented about 25 local companies. You are in the data processing business or higher programmers and data processors. Uh, they direct this program. They select students, design, curriculum, evaluate students and mhm. They're the ones who developed the internships and placements, and they donate whatever we need.

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Mhm. If I go to a meeting and I say we need, Oh, four desks and two cabinets like magic, they'll appear within a week. Good. Each student who participates in the program is disabled. They want to work. But until now, they haven't been given much of a chance.

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Oh, they range from every alphabet disability you can think of. MD MSC P stroke, kidney failure, quadriplegia, paraplegia. You can do Uhh Birth defects. Yeah. Accidents. Amputees. Blind, deaf. Just about every disability you can think of. Mhm. If a person has a disability, which causes which becomes a barrier to their employment and that would qualify them for entrance into this program.

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Advances in Computer Technology Opening New Opportunities for the Disabled Curtis Williams has been blind for 10 years. His computer is equipped with a special voice box that gives him instructions. I get my assignments on tape and listen to him on this recorder. I'm able to read the screen by using this.

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Keep hands. It allows me to read the roles on the screen. It allows me to know, Locate where the Cursi is allows me also to know what I'm writing and, uh, what my messages are on the screen. It takes a a little time to acquaint yourself with the keypad, but once you're able two, uh, understand how it works, you're able to read anything that comes up on the screen.

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Before coming to Valencia, many students said they simply set at home and drew government disability checks. Those fortunate enough to find jobs were forced to take low paying part time work, but the Valencia program changed all that. Without all of those people working together, these students would stay home for the rest of their lives, collecting disability benefits, being tax burdens, and instead they're out there productive citizens.

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Let's do it. And best of all, they're paying taxes and contributing well when they start. I think I mentioned their average salaries about 20,000 a year, which is a high jump from 300 a month. But they do excellently. They are prepared. A. T and T tells us that our students are prepared better than four year graduates with computer science degrees that have been on the job of year.

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So they promoted very well. We have bye during the last four classes we have managers and supervisors already in one gentleman is at this point making 36 0 a year. You can imagine how his life has changed, Beverly said. Most graduates earn between 18 and $24,000 a year.

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The program is a good example of our education. Business and vocational training can forge a strong partnership and help willing people become productive. The Valencia program is recognized by the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges as one of the top three programs of its kind in the nation.

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It's also received the spirit of Epcot Award from Walt Disney World for using today's technology to to solve tomorrow's problems. When we return, we'll see what's being done in Florida to combat the deadly AIDS virus. The very sure lift Tell little this is what it's like to be functionally illiterate.

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There are 27 million Americans like this who need your help volunteer. At this number, the only degree you need is a degree of caring. I think I can the eternal miracle. A healthy, joyous young life, a new beginning. But miracles don't just happen. Health care before birth is the best insurance for having healthy babies at birth.

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If you're pregnant, get good prenatal care. In November of 1918, World War one came to an end. But the dying was a long ways From over. Between September and June of the following year, 550,000 Americans were to die of what was called the Spanish flu. That's more people dead from disease than all the American battle deaths in World wars, one to Korea and Vietnam combined.

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Overall, the flu killed more than 21 million people around the world. Most of us have never had to face up to the reality of a deadly transmittable disease. Until now, since 1981 the world has been fighting a strong epidemic called AIDS. Unlike the flu, and this is important, AIDS can't be spread through casual encounter.

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People get the disease through sexual contact with an infected partner from contaminated blood or by sharing contaminated needles. During drug use, the AIDS virus enters the bloodstream and attacks the body's immune system. Without these natural defenses, people become vulnerable to illnesses ranging from pneumonia, tuberculosis to cancer and other problems.

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That's how this killer disease got its name acquired. Immune deficiency syndrome. There's no known cure for this infectious disease. AIDS can lie dormant for many years and can be passed to others during this time. The chilling prospect of AIDS spreading throughout the population makes it the number one health fear in the country Today.

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As chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that handles funding for health programs, I've conducted several hearings on the AIDS issue, two of them in Florida, in West Palm Beach, I summarized the situation in our state. Florida ranks third in the nation for the number of AIDS cases, nearly 75% of our cases are in three counties Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.

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Here in Florida, the most recent figures show that 2600 cases have been reported, and at their age cases in 45 of our 67 counties in the state, our state has been disproportionately hit by the AIDS epidemic. We're having some 120 new cases reported each month. During the hearings, a representative of Congress investigative arm, the General Accounting Office, outlined the national picture.

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He said 45,000 AIDS cases have been reported, up from only 319 81. Most of the cases are clustered in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Washington, D. C. And Miami Persons diagnosed Talking Crater is the director of Florida's state health office. The department of HRS has maintained good surveillance of the epidemic in Florida since 1981.

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Projections made by US in February of 87 show that that the Florida case count will continue to double approximately every 12 months. Florida expects a total of 4000 cumulative cases by of age by July of 1988 8000 by 89 16,000 by 1990 and 32,000 cumulative cases.

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1991. These grim projections cannot be averted. The virus that causes AIDS is slow to claim its host persons infected with the human immunodeficiency virus may show no signs or symptoms of illness from 3 to 5 to seven or even 10 years or more. Consequently, most persons in Florida and the nation who will be diagnosed with AIDS between now and 1991 are already today infected with a number so high I asked Dr Pressure what to expect during the next few years.

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Dr. Breaker, we've heard testimony from JoJo that in the future, 80% of the new AIDS cases will be in other than high incidence areas, Florida. That would mean we would start seeing more cases outside of the Dade, Broward and Palm Beach areas. Uh, if that in fact happens, are we ready in Florida to meet that challenge?

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We're sitting on the threshold were not really ready to meet that challenge. We believe that the first line of defense again is education and motivation, counseling and testing. We use those words in that order. Counseling, testing counseling is more important than the testing. One who identifies as a high risk group who identifies himself as high risk, is more important that he understands the epidemiology of age and what he can do or she can do protect herself and her significant others that it is actually the test.

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75% of Florida's AIDS cases have been reported in Palm Beach, Broward Dade and Monroe County. Dr. James Howell is the director of the Palm Beach County Health Department. He believes education will slow the spread of AIDS. I would just like to highlight that, uh, education right now has to be our major, uh, major tool for prevention, and that's that's very hard.

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I know. Uh, send the trials. You've been very instrumental and public policy in regards to drug abuse and cocaine and AIDS and Palm Beach counties are interwoven Harvey promiscuous lifestyles. And, uh, we've talked about how we're going to get the women off the streets when, uh, council amount AIDS.

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When you can't get the North area cocaine addiction. And that becomes on Mazzello scale the number one issue. Uh, so both of them are really interrelated. Uh, I would like to see much more massive public education, uh, plus targeted education to to the high risk groups.

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And in our county we have a very high percentage of minority populations. And I think, uh, I think we have a lot to do more there. I know we're going to do a study shortly. Not a study. A program shortly in western Palm Beach County with C D.

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C and H. R s uh, in regards to trying to really target the high risk behavior activities out there. But that's got The University of Miami has become a major center for age treatment and research. It's built an ambulatory treatment center and a 36 bed inpatient facility.

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New approaches to help shorten the time an AIDS patient spends in the hospital have been developed, thus helping to cut down on the cost of treatment. So there is some evidence of progress, but the problem has a long and frightening reach. Sadly, a recent finding reveals more than 550 AIDS cases have been reported in Children around the nation.

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That's why I conducted another hearing, this time in Miami as chairman of the National Commission to Prevent Infant Mortality, I wanted to find out what the AIDS virus does to Children. Outstanding member. What you're about to hear and see our mothers with AIDS, Talking about their lives and the agony of their Children.

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These frightened people, afraid to reveal their identities, testified under black drapes. They illustrate the terrible burden AIDS brings to society, in part because they know what they have, and in part because we know so little about the disease itself. Well, it used to be a junkie, No.

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So and I always want to have a child and I quit. I don't do drugs anymore. I don't go out. I don't jump around because I want to have a child and let's get married and I get pregnant and I have my child because, uh, that's all I want to have.

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And then I was working. I was feeling so tired and I get sick. I went to the doctor mhm after they make some block tears and everything to check me all the time. So they told me they have eight and I was so sad, I felt so bad.

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Yeah, I run away and I bring the child to the hospital to see how he was doing, and they told me that my child had eight to. So I feel like I want to die because that's don't just things like that. After all the work I did to quit, we're up against a terrible unknown, but there's no going back and there's no hiding from it.

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We've got to learn more through a national program of Canada and education. We've got to let people know how to protect themselves from the disease. And we've got to fight AIDS on many fronts with research the information and with genuine care. When we come back, we'll visit the Twin Cities Congregate living facility in Okaloosa County.

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No, yeah. Battery D had been in the trenches for eight months, eight months of the bloodiest fighting in our country's history. Every one of them was a volunteer, a citizen soldier in the Missouri National Guard. They all left their jobs of sweethearts to risk their lives in the fields of France.

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Their captain was a volunteer to a young businessman from Independence, Missouri, and his proudest accomplishment was getting the battery through without losing a man. It's the army sister has been signed. His name was Harry Truman. We can go home, soldier. If Harry Truman had worked for you, would you have given him time off to serve his country?

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The need for the National Guard and Reserve is never over. Today, it's more important than ever. Support the men and women of the National Guard and Reserve protect their future while they protect yours. Welcome back. Congress has just reauthorized the Older Americans act. The law, which became effective in 1965 opened many doors to our senior citizens.

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Meals on wheels, transportation services, investing nurses are just some of the programs made possible by the act. Local agencies like the Council on Aging provide the services. In Okaloosa County, the Council on Aging operates the Twin Cities Pavilion for senior citizens. They turned the Old County Hospital nice spittle into a congregant living facility.

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The hospital became surplus when a new one was built. The county leases the old hospital building to the Council on Aging for a dollar a year. I recently visited the center, a place which 40 residents call home more on the waiting list to get in. The idea behind the congregate program is to provide a less expensive alternative to nursing homes for people who don't need full time care.

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Each resident has a private room and each meals with others in the dining hall. Ruth Lovejoy is executive director of the Council on Aging. As an administrator of the Twin Cities Pavilion, she explained how it all got started in Niceville in Valparaiso. Now tell me how, how, why you decided to utilize this and how your organization is kind of set up the first time The need occurred to me was when we had a lady that was a retired federal employee and she was in a condition that required some sort of supervision but did not need to be in an institution.

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The only alternative that was available to her at the time was Chattahoochee. And I thought, This is a terrible thing, you know? She just needs to have some sort of help. She doesn't need to be in a place like Chattahoochee, and the other thing that occurred to me was Now we're not talking about very poor, very wealthy people were talking about us.

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We're talking about the working class person, and this is this is when it came to our attention that there was nothing available. She had too much income to qualify for any any assistance. But she did not have enough to take care of herself. She's just one of the people that felt exactly an awful lot of them do that exactly.

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So when this came available at that, what an ideal way to use the facility, never thinking that we would actually be fortunate enough because, you know, we hadn't operated anything this large. So we really marshal the troops. We've got the seniors to grow up and expressed their need to the commissioners, and I think that it was a great act of faith on their part.

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Two. Commit a building of this size to an agency that did not have the extreme. Tell me about your agent. We Who is we? Well, I guess that I was able to share the story with our board of directors and also with the people that I thought will lead us the senior.

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And that's the national That's your Council on Aging. Yes, which is your your county organization. That's correct to utilize some of the older American Act funds and some of the exactly funds that you have, and I think most councils on aging administer the older American Act programs, and we do a community.

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Here is some of the other activities, but I don't believe there is another Council on Aging that has entered into this sort of an enterprise. So we kind of call this a congregant living facility where, where you try to and what all do you try to do for the folks that are here?

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Then I think the most important thing is the preservation of dignity so frequently. When a person gets older, somebody else is taking over and making the decision. When we developed this facility, one of the things we thought was very critical was that they have their own furnishings, if possible, that whatever space they had, that that room would be there exactly, Ruth said.

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Residents pay $486 a month for everything from meals to utility. Compare this with $1500 a month for care in a nursing home. Well, we wanted to 24 hours a day so that there's always somebody that's available and they're receiving hourly checks, especially during the evening. We monitor their medications, and this has become very, very important as far as the local physicians are concerned, because now they know that these folks are getting the medication that they're supposed to get when they're supposed to get it and as they're supposed to get it, because frequently when people are living by themselves, they either forget to take it or they take it and forget that.

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Tell me it makes an awful lot of difference when you take a prescription, whether you take it at the right time or not, Four sir will change entirely what the effects will be. So that is important. And I think the other thing that we also do here is if there are any changes, you know, the girls will call at least the nurse and say to her, This is the symptoms that they're exhibiting now and frequently The doctor can intervene immediately.

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You know, that's preventive care, of course, and and you know how many times at home, if they've given a prescription, it lost for two weeks? They'll take it for two weeks, whether it has side effects or not. So here, the doctors getting immediate feedback, and I think the physicians in the area, very appreciative.

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But when they're able to do for them, what are you able to provide? This service is for how much? What would the cost be here? Most of the residents are paying the state rate, which is $486 a month, and that's all inclusive. There are no extras.

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There's no extra for laundry. There's no extra for having your hair shampooed. So for that amount of 400 86 $86 a month, that's their meals. That's the 24 hour care. That's the use of all the facilities, the monitoring of their They get any nursing care for that.

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We do by regulation. The folks that live here cannot require skilled nursing care. That's where the differentiation comes with nursing home. That's what we know that a person is ready to move. This level is not the nursing home. This is trying to keep people out of the nursing.

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Absolutely, absolutely. But these are people, some that need some extra help. So maybe they couldn't totally live by themselves. But they have that here. And they also have the companionship. Yes, well, you know, with some of them They're just frail because of their their age. There are others that because they're getting older, they don't feel secure living alone.

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It's not that they have a physical problem. It's not that they couldn't survive by themselves, but at least if they hear if something happens, if they have a dizzy spell or something, there's help available to them immediately. And we feel very fortunate because the medics is stationed and back.

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You know, the ambulance crew and frequently we have folks that had needed the reassurance of somebody that place. There's a knowledgeable person, these these are people that might be put into the nursing home way ahead of time if they didn't have this facility. Yes, I think that that's one of the one of the problems that arises when you don't have something that's between.

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I think you've been very innovative to take what would have been an old abandoned hospital building that would have been just sort of an eyesore in the community. And turn that into that. And congratulations. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for showing it to me.

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Very welcome. The Older Americans Act has helped thousands in Florida and It's dedicated people like Ruth Lovejoy and those in the Okaloosa County government who make programs like this work. Well, that's all we have time for today. But before we go, I want to wish you a happy holiday season.

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This month will be full of parties and festivities. I hope you'll keep in mind that driving and drinking don't mix. This is Senator Lawton Child's. Please join me again next time for the Lawton Child's update. Mhm. Okay, Yeah. Do you do? Mhm. Mhm you? Mm hmm.

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Sadly, Florida is one of the top three states in the nation in the number of AIDS cases. We'll examine this deadly disease and the Lord Child's update. I'm Senator Lawton Child's. I hope you'll join us. Yeah.