MARCH 2020 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 33
SHIFTING Advancements in the treatment, diagnoses, and perception of patients HORIZONS
with cerebral palsy has improved dramatically, experts say. (Getty Images)
CEREBRAL PALSY COMMUNITY ON LONG ISLAND FACES CHANGES
BY NICK FODERA
Change tends not to occur suddenly, at least in the fi eld of rehabilitative medicine. For those
with cerebral palsy, change is gradual and not always easily obtained.
When documenting how much the treatment and diagnosis of CP has changed over time,
what must not be discounted is the sea change in the public perception of this disability.
“It’s been pretty dramatic,” says Dr. David Roye, executive director of the Weinberg Family
Cerebral Palsy Center, who has been an attending physician for children and adults with
CP since 1980. “When I fi rst started seeing patients with CP as a resident, a fellow, and a
young attendant, we still had residential homes … If you were a wheelchair ambulator and
if they were having trouble taking care of you at school or at home, you would just go live in
the hospital, which of course is not exactly ideal care.”
PRESS HEALTH
WHAT’S INSIDE continued on page 34
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THE OPIOID TAKE 5
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