Recent Facebook Post: Sometimes advocating for your health care means staying diligent with meds, tracking symptoms, and recruiting coping skills. Sometimes it means reaching out, activating your support network, and contacting your care team. And sometimes it means showing up to your doctor’s office unannounced, in tears, and staying until someone really listens, making [...]
Flathead County Summit Closed - Jan. 1, 19; Feb. 15 Social Security Orientation - First and third Wednesdays monthly. Please call 257-0048 ext. 141, to register and get location. YODA - Youth group meets once a month. Living Well with a Disability - Starting Jan. 12, 2 p.m. Social Activities - We get together four [...]
Summit Independent Living Peer Advocate Rick Eakle won the 2015 Rising Star Award in the Bitterroot Toastmasters Club for most improvement in speaking and/or leadership skills. For the award Eakle received a commemorative certificate and his name was added to the Bitterroot Toastmasters Club’s Montana-shaped plaque for permanent display in their meeting room. Rick, who [...]
Last month, peer advocate Jason Billehus gathered with other self-advocate leaders from the western United States in Seattle at the 2015 Pacific Alliance on Disability Self Advocacy (PADSA) Leadership Academy. There, leaders shared information and learned more about topics such as organizational management, social media, and self-advocate leadership with their self-advocacy organizations. Participants also created [...]
The disability community mourns the loss of two great advocates. Gay Moddrell was a former board member for Summit Independent Living Center and Disability Rights Montana. She was also the longtime director of the Special Friends advocacy program in Kalispell, and served with numerous other disability organizations. Her fire and kindness touched the lives of [...]
When to Shift: A Discussion of Mobility Devices For people with mobility-related disabilities, choosing which mobility aid to use, or even having one at all, is a complex and personal decision. I use a walker, along with a recumbent bicycle, to get around. I discussed this issue with various colleagues who also use mobility devices. [...]
Velda Vial, who has been a Summit peer for more than 10 years, took home a grand prize for a quilted bedspread she entered in the quilting competition at the annual Ravalli County Fair. Velda has crocheted almost all of her life, and she does it using only her left hand, after childhood polio paralyzed [...]
Mary Millin, LaRoy Williamson and Richard Frisbie from Summit Independent Living Center helped with a walking audit of Hamilton streets in June. Good and bad paths were assessed by a diverse team of community members. “It is really great to have a couple of individuals in wheelchairs along,” said Melinda Barnes, executive director of Bike [...]
We eat food, but our system doesn’t absorb food - it absorbs nutrients. Food has to be broken down to its nutrient pieces: amino acids, fatty acids, simple sugars as well as vitamins, minerals, and a variety of other things. Digestive enzymes break down our food into nutrients so that our bodies can absorb them. [...]
Low impact exercises are controlled movements generally when you keep one foot on the floor. As the name suggests, low impact exercise is a type of exercise where the amount of stress placed upon the joints of your knees, hips and ankles is relatively minimal. These exercises are ideal for many people, including those with [...]