Disabled face barriers in attempt to get healthy - Many gyms lack proper equipme

[Guest guest]

Disabled face barriers in attempt to get healthy

Many gyms lack proper equipment for impaired, making it harder to be

fit

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18137314/

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Three times a week, Vince Stankoski is lifted

from his wheelchair onto a stationary bicycle. Electrodes are

attached to three of his muscle groups, coaxing his paralyzed legs

to pedal.

It is the highlight of his workout.

" I like that I can look down at my legs and still see muscles

there, " says the town, Pa., man who lost the use of his legs

after falling from a tree in 1998.

Apart from the bike, he also likes using the upper body weights,

which come equipped with a seat that swivels away so he can move his

wheelchair into position and lift.

Stankoski is one of the fortunate ones. He belongs to a gym

specifically designed to accommodate people with disabilities.

Few other disabled people have that option. The basics of good

health — diet and exercise — often present challenges for people

with disabilities, a situation made more difficult by a common

assumption that disability and poor health go hand in hand.

The result, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, is that people with disabilities — roughly 19 percent of

all Americans — are far less healthy than the average American.

Since those with disabilities are the biggest users of medical

services, that disparity could be costing hundreds of millions of

tax dollars a year.

Those costs are likely to increase as the baby boomer generation

grows older and more susceptible to disabilities.

" There's an enormous number of barriers that people with

disabilities face when they try to become healthy, " says Dr.

Rimmer, director of the National Center on Physical Activity &

Disability, and a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Those barriers range from health clubs that view people with

disabilities as potential liabilities to public health campaigns

that bypass them entirely.

" There's a mind-set that people with disabilities are also ill and

they shouldn't be exercising, " says Jerry McCole, who heads the

National Disability Sports Alliance. The group promotes athletic

competition and physical activity among people with cerebral palsy,

traumatic brain injury, stroke and other physically disabling

conditions.

" It's like any minority group — out of sight, out of mind, " McCole

says.

Higher likelihood of poor health

But people with disabilities are increasingly hard to overlook. In a

first-of-its-kind study released last fall, the CDC found that those

with disabilities were more than four times more likely to be in

fair or poor health than those who are not disabled. Those with

disabilities were also more likely to smoke and to be obese and

physically inactive. In West Virginia, the numbers are even worse.

States with the most disabled adults

The five states where disabilities among adults are most common:

Rank State Percentage

1. West Virginia 26%

2. Kentucky 25%

3. Washington State 24%

4. Oregon 24%

5. Mississippi 23.5%

Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Deborrah Pittman, head of the computer science department at

Bluefield State College in West Virginia, was diagnosed with

multiple sclerosis in 1997 and sometimes uses a wheelchair. She

lives in a state where one in four adults is disabled, the highest

rate in the country.

Pittman says she's lucky that a gym in Bluefield, near the Virginia

border, has one or two pieces of equipment she can use to get an

upper body workout.

Part of the problem, according to experts, is the common assumption

that people with disabilities are simply unable to take on physical

tasks.

" People with disabilities can be healthy, and people without

disabilities can be unhealthy, " says Crews, a lead scientist

for the CDC's Disability and Health Team. But the perception

persists, even in public health, that the opposite is true.

" Public health has a kind of uncomfortable relationship with

disability. People with disabilities tend to be viewed by people in

public health as a failure of primary prevention, " Crews said.

Push for universal accessibility

That's starting to change. In January, Rimmer and a group of doctors

and advocates launched the Inclusive Fitness Coalition to urge

private health clubs and gyms to make universal accessibility part

of their basic service.

At places such as Optimal Fitness, where Stankoski works out, that's

already happening. Optimal Fitness is part of Good Shepherd, an

acute-care rehabilitation hospital. The fitness center is open to

hospital patients and employees, but also to anyone with a

qualifying disability.

There's no nearby exercise alternative for people like Stankoski.

The next nearest place is 60 miles away in Philadelphia.

" Things changed really fast for me, " Stankoski says, recalling the

accident that paralyzed him. But rehabilitation and regular fitness

have helped him to stay trim and muscular.

" Since I started here, everything's been going good, " he says.