Indiana

Program for youngest Hoosiers faces massive backlog

Published

2 years ago

April 21, 2023

Program for youngest Hoosiers faces massive backlog

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

As many as 1,500 Hoosier infants and toddlers are lacking key improvement milestones — caught up in a large and unprecedented backlog within the state’s early intervention program that gives providers similar to speech and bodily remedy.

Why it issues: The primary three years of a kid’s life are an important window through which their brains are nonetheless growing. For kids with developmental delays, early intervention can have a major impression on their skill to be taught new expertise and might enhance success at school and life.

Driving the information: Indiana’s early intervention program, First Steps, is thus far behind in offering well timed providers as required by the People with Disabilities Training Act that it is vulnerable to federal sanctions.

State lawmakers writing the subsequent two-year finances have proposed rising the funding for this system from $18 million to $25.5 million, however advocates are involved it will not be sufficient.
The appropriation is predicated on a research from 2018, so it does not have in mind the previous 5 years of inflation and wage strain.

State of play: The demand for providers is rising, whereas this system is dropping therapists and different service suppliers, Christina Commons, First Steps’ director, advised Axios.

A research commissioned in 2018 discovered that the charges First Steps paid to suppliers have been 35% to 60% decrease than regional market charges.
The share of youngsters ready greater than 30 days for providers has grown from 2% in 2013 to 17% in 2021.

What they’re saying: “We had suppliers leaving, saying: ‘I actually love this job, however I simply cannot afford to do it anymore,’” Commons mentioned. “The speed was an obstacle to retaining certified employees.”

A baby is held on an exercise ball by a physical therapist — Kim Chambers, a therapist with First Steps supplier Jacob’s Ladder, works with child Amiracle. Photograph: Courtesy of Jacob’s Ladder

The way it works: Each state is required to offer early intervention providers to kids with developmental delays or disabilities and their households, from delivery to their third birthday.

Households arrive at First Steps by a referral, typically when their little one has missed a developmental milestone or has a recognized medical situation, similar to Down syndrome.
After referral, every little one goes by an analysis to qualify for providers.
The most typical providers embody bodily, occupational and speech remedy.

The most recent: The Household and Social Providers Administration, which administers First Steps, scraped collectively sufficient funding earlier this 12 months to boost charges by 14% to 64%, relying on the service supplied, however it is going to want the proposed state funding bump to keep up these charges.

Sure, however: Even with the brand new charges, this system is struggling to retain suppliers, in accordance with Mariann Frigo, an occupational therapist who has labored as a First Steps supplier for 25 years.

“They introduced up individuals’s salaries but it surely’s nonetheless not aggressive and we’re nonetheless dropping individuals,” she mentioned.

Context: First Steps suppliers make residence calls and might spend hours on the highway, typically solely seeing 4 or 5 children in a day. And if a household cancels or forgets their appointment and is not residence, the supplier does not receives a commission.

There’s an emotional toll, too, Frigo mentioned. Suppliers are in households’ properties each week — generally for 2 years or extra — so that they typically watch as a household struggles to make ends meet or take care of a medically fragile little one.
“It may be very lonely and really difficult,” Frigo mentioned. “As laborious as it’s, we do wonderful issues and children truly catch up on a regular basis.”

What’s subsequent: Lawmakers have till April 29 to complete the subsequent two-year spending plan.

Source link

Indiana

New Orleans takes on Indiana, seeks to end 4-game slide

Published

3 hours ago

November 25, 2024

Press Room

New Orleans takes on Indiana, seeks to end 4-game slide

Associated Press

New Orleans Pelicans (4-13, 15th in the Western Conference) vs. Indiana Pacers (7-10, ninth in the Eastern Conference)

Indianapolis; Monday, 7 p.m. EST

BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Pacers -5.5; over/under is 228

BOTTOM LINE: New Orleans heads into the matchup against Indiana as losers of four straight games.

The Pacers are 5-2 in home games. Indiana ranks fifth in the league with 17.0 fast break points per game led by Bennedict Mathurin averaging 4.5.

The Pelicans have gone 1-7 away from home. New Orleans averages 14.2 turnovers per game and is 3-4 when turning the ball over less than opponents.

The Pacers are shooting 48.7% from the field this season, 0.2 percentage points higher than the 48.5% the Pelicans allow to opponents. The Pacers average 103.8 points per game, 14.3 fewer points than the 118.1 the Pacers allow to opponents.

TOP PERFORMERS: Pascal Siakam is averaging 20.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists for the Pacers.

Brandon Ingram is scoring 22.9 points per game and averaging 5.8 rebounds for the Pelicans.

LAST 10 GAMES: Pacers: 4-6, averaging 111.7 points, 38.9 rebounds, 26.1 assists, 9.0 steals and 5.0 blocks per game while shooting 47.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 115.5 points per game.

Pelicans: 1-9, averaging 100.2 points, 42.7 rebounds, 23.0 assists, 7.8 steals and 4.5 blocks per game while shooting 42.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 114.7 points.

INJURIES: Pacers: Aaron Nesmith: out (ankle), Andrew Nembhard: out (knee), Isaiah Jackson: out for season (calf), James Wiseman: out for season (calf), Ben Sheppard: out (oblique).

Pelicans: Zion Williamson: out (hamstring), Yves Missi: day to day (shoulder), CJ McCollum: day to day (thigh), Herbert Jones: out (shoulder ), Dejounte Murray: day to day (hand), Jose Alvarado: out (hamstring).

___

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

Source link

Indiana

Wizards Drop 11th Straight in Loss vs. Pacers

Published

11 hours ago

November 24, 2024

Press Room

Wizards Drop 11th Straight in Loss vs. Pacers

The Washington Wizards are still in the loss column after falling to the Indiana Pacers 115-103 inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Sunday evening.

The Wizards remained competitive throughout the game, especially after the first half when they led by two points going into halftime.

However, the Pacers pulled ahead in the second half and were able to cruise to a double-digit victory.

The Pacers had seven players scoring in double figures, including a team-high 22 points from Pascal Siakam. Myles Turner had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

The Wizards were sorely missing their leading scorer in Jordan Poole, who was ruled out prior to the game with a hip injury. That put Kyshawn George into the starting lineup, where he scored 15 points while grabbing five rebounds and dishing out five assists.

All five starters scored in double figures with Bilal Coulibaly and Alex Sarr scoring 17 points apiece for the team-high.

With 11 consecutive losses, the Wizards remain at the bottom of the NBA standings, but there are some positives that the team will walk away with.

The Wizards will look to snap their losing streak back at home on Tuesday against the Chicago Bulls.

Make sure you bookmark Washington Wizards on SI for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!

Source link

Indiana

Weirdo Sports Columnist Gregg Doyel Gets Worked Up Over Ohio State Dominating Indiana, Gets Eviscerated On X

Published

19 hours ago

November 24, 2024

Press Room

Weirdo Sports Columnist Gregg Doyel Gets Worked Up Over Ohio State Dominating Indiana, Gets Eviscerated On X

PublishedNovember 24, 2024 11:01 AM EST|UpdatedNovember 24, 2024 11:01 AM EST

It’s a day that ends in the letter ‘y,’ so Indy Star sports columnist Gregg Doyel is acting strange online. Thankfully, this scenario has nothing to do with him acting creepy towards WNBA star Caitlin Clark, but instead, centers around the Ohio State Buckeyes blowing out the Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday.

For anyone who may have forgotten, Doyel stole the show during Clark’s introductory press conference with the Indiana Fever by making the scene all about himself in one of the strangest moves ever seen in a media setting.

Doyel introduced himself to Clark by saying “Real quick, let me do this,” before reportedly forming a heart with his hands, a gesture Clark does towards her family after games.

Clark replied by very awkwardly asking “You like that?” before things got even weirder.

“I like that you’re here. I like that you’re here,” Doyel responded. “Yeah, I do that at my family after every game, so it’s very cool,” Clark replied.

“Okay, start doing it to me, and we’ll get along just fine,” Doyel replied back.

Long story short, Doyel later apologized for his creepy actions but was ultimately suspended by the Indy Star for two weeks.

Naturally, each time he shares his opinion on social media nowadays, he gets chirped into oblivion and Saturday was no exception.

Doyel took serious offense to Ohio State scoring a touchdown with 35 seconds left in regulation to ultimately cap off its win over Indiana 38-15. He specifically didn’t appreciate Ohio State quarterback Will Howard celebrating the nail-in-the-coffin touchdown by putting out a fake cigarette to mock Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti.

Doyel taking offense to a 23-year-old college quarterback celebrating a monumental win over an undefeated Indiana team is odd behavior, and folks in his mentions were sure to point out that fact.

Ohio State virtually guaranteed a spot in the College Football Playoff with the win over Indiana, and the Hoosiers should be safe as well, barring a colossal loss to Purdue to close out the regular season.

Source link