IACC Request For Information Due 8/21

By Kim Stagliano

Below is info on a Request for Information from the IACC. Meanwhile, enjoy the tune. Comment if you get the joke. I couldn't find one more specific to the phrase. Thank your lucky stars.  KS

--- On Wed, 7/29/09, NIMH IACCPublicInquiries (NIH/NIMH) <iaccpublicinquiries@mail.nih.gov> wrote:

From: NIMH IACCPublicInquiries (NIH/NIMH) <iaccpublicinquiries@mail.nih.gov>

Subject: Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) Requests Public Comment

To: "NIMH IACCPublicInquiries (NIH/NIMH)" <iaccpublicinquiries@mail.nih.gov>

Date: Wednesday, July 29, 2009, 2:16 PM

Request for Information (RFI): ) Updating the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee Strategic Plan for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Research  

On behalf of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), the Nation Institute of Mental Health is seeking comments to inform the annual update of the IACC Strategic Plan for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Research, as required by the Combating Autism Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-416).

The purpose of this RFI is to solicit input from ASD stakeholders to inform the next update of the Strategic Plan.   In the RFI form, there will be an opportunity to provide input on each section of the IACC Strategic Plan.  Please include suggestions regarding missing or underrepresented knowledge areas, new opportunities needed for advancing research and knowledge about ASD, and suggestions for prioritizing research objectives.

The RFI will close on August 21, 2009. 

Responses must be submitted electronically via the web-based form. (Use the link above, next to (Request for Info/RFI.)

Background:

The IACC was established as a result of The Combating Autism Act.  The act requires that the IACC develop a strategic plan for autism research and update the strategic plan annually. The IACC is composed of both Federal and public members.  The first IACC Strategic Plan for ASD Research was developed through an extensive process engaging a wide range of Federal agencies and public stakeholders.  The Strategic Plan is organized around six questions that are important for people with ASD and their families:

I.      When should I be concerned?
II.     How can I understand what is happening?
III.    What caused this to happen and can this be prevented?
IV.     Which treatments and interventions will help?
V.      Where can I turn for services?
VI.     What does the future hold?

Please Note: The responses that you provide will become part of the public record.  You have the option of posting your responses anonymously or you may choose to have your name associated with your response. In your responses, please do not include personally identifiable information that you do not wish to make public.

For more information about the IACC, please visit www.iacc.hhs.gov.
Now follow the IACC on Twitter (www.twitter.com/IACC_Autism).

Contact Information:
Attention: RFI on Updating the Strategic Plan for ASD Research
Office of Autism Research Coordination
Office of the Director
National Institute of Mental Health
6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 8235, MSC 9669
Bethesda, MD 20892-9669
Email: iacc@mail.nih.gov

Comments

[Stagmom]

Well, John, try asking most Americans if they'd like to eat some spotted dick and see how far you get! Translations work both ways and I was happy to edify you. Cheers!

[John Stone]

Kim

Ah yes, there are just occasionally things we English need to have explained!

[Gatogorra]

John-- I like your interpretation. I think of Thomas Insel's feigned concern and have an image of him singing "Mammy". But I have a sneaking feeling that he's not, you know, one of us.

[Stagmom]

John, nope. This isn't a racial or keeping us down issue. There's a phrase for when someone accomplishes nothing of use and/or lies to you, it's "Whistling Dixie out of your a$$hole." Fitting, yes?

[John Stone]

Originally, as I understand it, when they performed "I wish I was in Dixie" there were white people blacked up pretending to be freed black slaves who longed to go back to the plantation - like hell! I wonder whether Kim's point is that we have here people pretending to represent our interests, while wanting to keep us enslaved.

[ElizaCassandra]

From "across the pond":- Here in the British Isles we have a saying, usually describing someone engaged in pointless activity, as "rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic". Do you have this saying in the USA?

[Carolyn M]

I like the tune too, as well as Anne Dachel's nomination of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". I have a song to nominate as well, given their past performance: "The Side Step":

"Ooh, I love to dance a little sidestep, now they see me now they don't - I've come and gone and, ooh I love to sweep around the wide step, cut a little swathe and lead the people on." (from Best Little Whorehouse in Texas).

[one angry mama]

Sent my answers in. Also vented a bit and told the IACC they are as useless as tits on a bull.

[Jack R.]

Erik and Anne,

Don't forget that swimming is a healthy form of exercise, so we're actually better off after hitting that iceberg.

[Erik Nanstiel]

Anne, you're wrong. If they were on the Titanic and it were sinking, they'd be arguing that we're just BETTER at detecting leaks in ships... and therefore the leaks were there all along... so nothing to worry about!

[Debi]

Hmm. I live in Dixie. You should try getting medical treatment for a child with autism in Dixie. Next week I'm crossing the Mason-Dixon line headed North to get treatment for my child with autism.

[Gatogorra]

Look away, look away, look away.

[Anne Dachel]

Kim,
Cute tune! The IACC can't even figure out what the problem is... I could see them on the Titanic. The ship would be going down and they'd be arguing over where people should sit in the lifeboat.

"Somewhere over the rainbow" might be fitting too. In Oz, they could just make autism go away like magic.

Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high.
There's a land that I heard of Once in a lullaby.
Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue.
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.
Someday I'll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far Behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops, Away above the chimney tops.
That's where you'll find me.
Somewhere, over the rainbow, bluebirds fly. Birds fly over the rainbow,
Why then - oh, why can't I?
If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow,
Why, oh, why can't I?

Anne Dachel
Media

[Theresa]

whistling Dixie... very appropriate. I wonder if the IACC will ever publish findings implicating vaccines, or crediting biomed, if the responses from parents to questions (III) and (IV) so indicate...