Orlando – mamasmunchkin

Mental illness seems to be a taboo subject no one wants to think about, much less talk about. Despite that fact, it’s a disability that if left untreated has devastating effects, not only on the person living with this illness, but also those around them.

The Criminal Justice System seems to be the place that most often ends up taking the responsibility of trying to help some of these individuals once they end up in jail. The Central Receiving Center in Orange County, Florida tries to help offenders by referring them to other resources that can best assist them in their situation. Because of the efforts put forth by the Central Receiving Center, incidences of re-offending can, and have been reduced. As a result, the problem of jail overcrowding, which is faced by most facilities within the Criminal Justice System is alleviated to a certain degree.

Sadly, as with other Social Services programs, when the economy hits a downturn, they’re the first to suffer. Lack of funding available to this program will lead to unnecessary overcrowding and these offenders won’t receive the help they actually need.

Hopefully Representatives can find a way to include funding in the State budget for this and other programs like it. Not only does this program benefit the offender by getting them the help they need, but also keeps the community safe as a whole. That’s certainly amounts to a win-win for all.

To find out more go to:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/os-ed-mental-health-care-florida-032314-20140321,0,3544368.story

Thanks for reading

Living in Orlando, and of course as a child, I’ve been to Epcot and Disney World. When I moved here permanently to go to school, I even visited Universal Studios a couple of times. When I was a child, these theme parks would let those with a disability get to the front of the line to make the park experience an equal one.

Over the years, there have been abuses of that privilege by people who rent a wheelchair when they really don’t need it or hire a disabled person to get to the front of the line. It’s no surprise that now, going to the theme parks isn’t that easy and at least for me, I don’t go that often anymore.

This past week, Disney decided to revise their disabled guest policy. Now, people are supposed to receive a photo I.D. and a virtual wait time to get on the rides. It wasn’t clear to me in the news report or the story from the link below how they will be handling those people who are accompanying the disabled guest but, maybe it will have to be a case of trial and error.

I applaud The Disney Company for trying to remedy a problem that’s really nothing new. Hopefully, once they get the kinks worked out, it will lead to a more enjoyable theme park experience for everyone.

Do you think the revision of this policy will get more disabled people to visit the parks?

Thanks for reading..

To get more information on this story, you can go to the link below:

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/disney-introduces-pass-prevents-non-disabled-peopl/nZ5f9/

Tag: Orlando

Disney’s Disabled Guest Policy