Meet 2025 Remarkable Women winner: Casey DePriest
On any given day, you can find Casey DePriest at Optimal ACCESS Academy in Newburgh, working with some of the most vulnerable in our community. 'Our world needs everybody. Everybody was created for a purpose.' Casey says. It's that philosophy that drives DePriest to work with children and adults with autism, several of which are nonverbal like Joey. Casey spent two days with Joey assessing his needs for therapy. His family traveled 4 hours for the intake.
Before Casey was opening schools and non-profit organizations using the latest research to help neurodivergent minds, she was a student in Columbus, Indiana- wondering which career field would suit her best. Both of her parents worked as teachers. Casey says, 'So I grew up in that environment. I Knew that wasn't my path.. and so that's why I went into music therapy. But it's kind of come full circle that, you know, I very much participate in education every single day and, and advocate for kids to have an education and a meaningful, equitable education.'After graduating from the University of Evansville, Casey interned at the Welborn Mulberry Center before opening Integrative Music Therapy in the early 2000's. 'in 2010, we finally got our first clinic, and our first clinic was in Evansville. And then since then, we've grown twice and are now here in Newburgh.' A few years later, Optimal Rhythms was born, now known as Optimal ACCESS. 'As we transition from traditional music therapy to neurologic music therapy and got some advanced training, we started to recognize, oh my goodness, like, there are things that we've been missing in the individuals that we served.' However, Casey noticed her Autistic clients' responses to therapy was inconsistent, 'So in, 2011, I was, introduced to some new research about autism that was more neurologic instead of behavioral. So in our practice, as we're approaching things from this, paradigm, we started to see big, big changes in the ways that our clients were responding in the way that they were able to access their body… These kids are completely understanding what it is that we're saying to them. Completely understanding what we're asking them to do. The breakdown is them carrying out the motor to do it. '
Casey and her team continued their research, then 11 years ago a non-verbal client named Josh was able to communicate with Casey that further education was needed. 'He spelled out 'Ms. Casey, you have to start a school, or I'm going to age out of school and never get an education.' And that that was the shift. I couldn't argue with that, and that's been the inspiration for so much of the work that we've done here,' said DePriest.
So start a school she did. And it didn't take long before ACCESS Academy was born. 'That stands for assuming confidence can ensure student success. We believe that the first step is to believe that these kids are capable.' The academy opened a whole world for both children and adults. 'Just seeing that glimmer of hope that they get when somebody gets them. But I am just so passionate that I want to train more people to do what we do.' And the program don't stop with ACCESS Academy. 'Access to Academics. is a home education program for families who are having a hard time getting the supports that they need so they support them at home. We have Access Family which is an intensive summer program and Access Parents which is a support group.'
Casey and her team work with at least 125 individuals a week, ranging in age from 2 to 67 years old, and are constantly looking for ways to improve their therapy programs. 'We listen to individuals because they have the solutions. These individuals who are sitting in these bodies listening to us while we jabber all day. They are the ones with the good ideas. They know what is needed.' One such example came from Noel. Noel has attended camp at Optimal ACCESS, taken classes and graduated with a high school diploma. Since then, the state of Indiana has asked him to serve on a board to advocate for disability rights. 'We submitted his idea to train direct support professionals who support non-speaking people in the community, and our project was accepted.'Casey also helped to create the Rethinking Autism Conference. It's held at USI and sold out last year, and making a return this week. 'We're super excited because we're going to get to have one day of, presentations and really exciting presentations. And then the second day will be workshops.' She is also currently participating in the Arizona State Micro School Entrepreneurial Fellowship for her innovation in education. It's easy to see why Casey is so remarkable. 'I'm kind of a disrupter. And I think that brings energy,' she says. She credits the support of her husband and two children for her work with the autistic community, as well as the brilliant minds of her co-workers to reach individuals who often get left behind. 'I think it speaks to the sacrifice that I've made and my family has made to allow me to do this…I hope our story reaches far. And it helps inspire and encourage more and more people,' says DePriest.
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Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Yahoo
A baby loss certificate would be 'powerful validation of grief'
Women who lost pregnancies before 24 weeks have said a baby loss certificate will be a "powerful symbol of validation for the grief that parents are going through". Currently in Northern Ireland, the death of a baby after 24 weeks is officially recorded as a stillbirth but there is no formal recognition of loss before 24 weeks, as there is in England. The finance minister has said it is his intention to introduce a similar scheme in Northern Ireland before the end of the year and a public consultation seeking views from bereaved parents has received more than 540 responses. He is keen to hear from as many people as possible, before it closes in News NI has spoken to three bereaved women about their experiences. Selina Casey, from Kilrea in County Londonderry, was prompted to set up the White Butterfly Foundation to help other parents when she found support was lacking after her own loss. Selina's story starts in February 2021, when she was pregnant with her third child. She arrived to an appointment at 18 weeks, "just assuming everything would be grand", but was told her baby had no heartbeat. "I was told: 'You're going to have to take medication and come in and deliver your son'," she said. Three days later, she delivered her son after a 12-hour labour at the Causeway Hospital. "I left the hospital the next day with him and a leaflet," she added. 'We want to talk about our baby and call them by their name' Her charity was set up "for bereaved parents, by bereaved parents". "I remember leaving the hospital and feeling like I had nothing to remember my child," she said. She said her child has a grave but she has "no certificate for him and nothing else to say that he was here". "These certificates are going to mean so much to the parents of Northern Ireland," she added. "Not that we ever want to have a hierarchy of grief, but there are different feelings that come at different stages of pregnancy loss. At the earlier stages, prior to 24 weeks, there can be feelings of invalidation, feelings of: 'I don't have a right to grieve here'. "Parents can feel silenced." She always tells families: "Please don't stop talking. We always want to talk about our baby and call them by their name if they have been named." Since the foundation opened, there have been referrals every day from health trusts and those self-referring. While she wishes the certificates had been brought in sooner, it's a "massively positive step forward" and, hopefully, a "stepping stone" to more support rolled out in all trust areas. 'The lack of recognition impacts your grief' Leah O'Hara "100% welcomes the certificates" but agrees that they are just one step in getting more support and legal recognition. The nurse, from Bangor in County Down, lives with her husband James and daughter, eight-year-old Mylah. After three early pregnancy losses, last year she and James lost baby Jacob at 22 weeks. "He was born, I gave birth to him and there was nothing to recognise that he existed - he was a baby - but he was born two weeks before the cut off," she told BBC News NI. The family was able to bring him home for five days. "The lack of recognition impacts your grief. I had so much anger that our baby was not recognised. You just want their name and story told. "The only certificate we have for Jacob is a cremation certificate." Leah hopes the certificate will be a step towards the issue being more openly spoken about. "Sometimes such losses are overlooked because people haven't met the baby or know the baby - but you know the baby. "It's a much longed for, loved baby already." Chatting to other mums in a group set up by Lurgan-based charity Little Forget Me Nots Trust has helped. "Speaking to people who resonate with me and just know exactly how you feel has been amazing," she said. Mylah has benefitted from their programme for siblings. "She was struggling with the fact that everyone in school had brothers and sisters and she didn't know how to mention her brother." Louise Taylor, from Portadown in County Armagh, founded the charity and said the certificate scheme is "so needed". She said goodbye to her son, Ruben, 10 years ago, and while there was support, it was not the support she felt she needed. "Everything was so dark and so gloomy," she said. "I really needed to help to figure out a way to find the light again. "I had another little girl at home and I struggled to parent her. I was back at work, completely oblivious that the grief was consuming me." Now she's "using this darkness" to help other families. Five years ago, when her father asked her to take over the family funeral directing business, she wanted to incorporate charity support. "I couldn't process saying goodbye to a child and helping a parent say goodbye to the child, then letting them off into the community," she said. "When somebody comes in through the door, after we've helped them say goodbye, in a few months through the darkness we pass on the baton to the charity so that the family is not left in the wilderness with nowhere to go." The programmes are "parent-led, trauma-informed and support these mummies and daddies in the darkness". One such group is for mums, using crafts, which keep hands busy while "blending it in with an element of understanding how our brain is processing this". "The most important thing is to let them know that it's OK if they feel like this and other people around this table feel like this." Her team hopes to roll out a similar group for fathers. Louise said 10 years ago she would have loved a certificate. "This is about validating the grief of these mummies and daddies - putting it in stone that this wee person existed," she said. "I don't think people realise what a woman goes through to say goodbye to her baby." What about leave from work? In England, there are plans for parents who experience a miscarriage before 24 weeks of pregnancy to be entitled to bereavement leave. The women said they would like to see similar coming into Northern Ireland. "I spoke recently to a woman who has had multiple miscarriages and she was asked to provide medical evidence of that," Selina said. Leah has been off work since the heartbreak of losing baby Jacob. "If Jacob had been born two weeks later I would have been entitled to maternity leave," she said. She would also like help for self-employed parents, like her husband. Should it be applied retrospectively? The women would also support the certificate scheme being applied retrospectively. Leah said she would get four certificates. "We didn't name our other babies – as they were before 12 weeks but a loss is a loss. "I think back dating it would help a lot of families." Who is the scheme open to? The scheme will be open to parents who have experienced the loss of a baby in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. The consultation runs until 12 September. If any these issues have affected you, details of help and advice are available on the BBC Action Line website. 'Having a certificate of loss proves my baby existed' Parents say public record means son will not be forgotten Baby loss certificate would 'prove my child existed'
Atlantic
07-07-2025
- Atlantic
The Missing Piece of RFK Jr.'s Agenda
The MAHA diet is full of fussy advice: swap the seed oils for beef tallow, cut out the ultra-processed snacks and synthetic food dyes, slap on a continuous glucose monitor to track how your blood sugar fluctuates with each bite. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his 'Make America healthy again' followers have such strong feelings about food because bad eating habits are making people sick. Many MAHA acolytes are equally particular about the need for a good night's sleep. In their best-selling book, Good Energy, Casey and Calley Means, siblings who are both close Kennedy confidants, warn that even the best eating habits cannot make up for bad sleep: 'You could eat a perfect 'Good Energy' diet, but if you don't sleep, your cells will spew out excess free radicals.' (Casey is Donald Trump's surgeon-general nominee, and Calley is a special White House adviser.) Should the family dog be a nuisance at night, it may necessitate 'intensive pet training or finding a new home,' they say. Other MAHA figures have similarly suggested making hard choices in the name of prioritizing sleep; Gary Brecka, a self-described biohacker who recently hosted Kennedy on his podcast, Ultimate Human, has recommended a $3,000 smart mattress cover. In typical MAHA fashion, some tips veer into the unscientific and even absurd. Mark Hyman, a longtime friend of Kennedy's who runs a wellness empire, has outlined a 'simple sleep routine' that includes throwing away plug-in air fresheners, staying away from plastic food containers, and even building a Faraday cage over your bed to keep away electromagnetic waves. Americans have been told over and over again to sleep more, with limited success. Nearly 40 percent of adults aren't getting enough rest, according to the CDC. The MAHA movement has good reasons to keep hounding the message. Poor sleep exacerbates many of the chronic conditions that the movement is focused on remedying. People who don't get enough shut-eye are at higher risk of heart disease and obesity. Even a week of sleep troubles can lead to glucose-processing issues similar to those experienced by people with type 2 diabetes. In May, the Trump administration's MAHA Commission published a long-awaited report on the causes of chronic disease among children; sleep is mentioned more than 20 times. (Calley Means apparently spearheaded the report.) When it comes to actual interventions and policies, however, sleep has been notably absent from the administration's planning. As health secretary, Kennedy has had some success cracking down on food dyes and enacting anti-vaccine policies, but he hasn't laid out anything close to a plan for addressing the country's sleep problem. The same can be said of state legislators who have been eager to implement MAHA policies. As a cause, sleep is a great illustration of MAHA's challenges: It's easy to make the point that Americans are unhealthy. It's much harder to actually fix it. Kennedy seems less focused on sleep than other MAHA leaders are—something that goes back to before he was health secretary. He hasn't mentioned sleep in any speeches since being confirmed for his job. When asked about Kennedy's views on sleep, a Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson told me that 'Secretary Kennedy supports a science-driven approach to health promotion, with an emphasis on raising awareness of lifestyle factors that contribute to long-term wellness.' There is good reason to think that RFK Jr. believes that sleep is an important part of improving America's health: He has suffered health scares in the past, partially due to sleep deprivation, and in response has prioritized getting more sleep, The New York Times reported last year. His silence on sleep might have to do with the fact that a good night's rest is especially difficult to legislate. Sure, the government cannot take a cheeseburger out of someone's mouth, but it can do a lot to change food habits: tweaking what items can be purchased with food stamps, rewriting the rules for what is served in schools, putting warning labels on unhealthy foods, even banning certain ingredients. There isn't a similar playbook for sleep. That's not to say there are no policies that could help. Take teens: Three-fourths of high schoolers do not get the recommended eight hours of sleep per night, according to the CDC. One of the key reasons is that their routine doesn't match with their biology. During puberty, adolescents naturally fall asleep and wake up later. This phenomenon, known as sleep-phase delay, is why first period is so tortuous for many high schoolers. Several sleep experts I spoke with suggested that school shouldn't start so early, which the Means siblings also endorse in their book. When Seattle's school district pushed its start time back by roughly an hour, students reported about 30 extra minutes of sleep per night. But Kennedy has little power to influence the education system. And even if he were to convince the Department of Education to endorse such a policy, states and localities would likely be the ones to implement such a change. Coming up with policies to address sleep is all the more challenging because different groups are falling short on rest for different reasons. Some people are deprived of sleep because they live in loud or dangerous areas. Many people are staying up working —or late-night scrolling. (We know of one president doing so, at least.) The policy challenges might not stop RFK Jr. from lamenting America's sleep woes. After all, no health problem is straightforward, and Kennedy has advocated for several food changes that he doesn't have the power to implement as the head of HHS. Like Hyman, perhaps he could give a speech outlining his own sleep hacks. Maybe he could go the way of Brecka and promote gadgets that promise to improve sleep. (Last week, Kennedy declared that 'wearables are a key to the MAHA agenda' and that he envisions every American wearing one within four years.) Or perhaps he, like the Means siblings, will just give Americans some hard truths about the importance of rest. The HHS secretary has shown himself to be an expert at riling crowds by channeling nostalgia for a bygone era, and America's sleep habits have gotten worse over the years. In 1942, 84 percent of adults were getting at least seven hours of sleep each night, according to a Gallup poll. By 2023, that number had dropped to 52 percent. But sleep doesn't lend itself to a rallying cry in the way that other aspects of the MAHA agenda do. The movement's critiques of our poor diets have been so galvanizing because there is a clear enemy to organize around: the food industry. The same can be said of RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine activism: Pharmaceutical companies make for an easy scapegoat, even though they aren't making products that cause autism. This process of determining the source of a problem and assigning blame is an essential part of any social movement, sociologists have suggested, and it is often what motivates action. If everyone was spending their nights tossing and turning on barbed-coil springs, perhaps a campaign could be waged against Big Mattress. But sleep is such a multifaceted problem that it's difficult to generate a single, unifying enemy. That doesn't mean sleep is a losing issue for the MAHA universe. The fact that there's a market for $3,000 mattress pads demonstrates just how desperate people are for a solution to their sleep woes. But without articulating a clear theory for why Americans' sleep has suffered, anything Kennedy says about sleep will make him look less like a reformer and more like a self-help guru eager to sell another cure.
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Yahoo
Your Brain Is Glowing Right Now. Literally.
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: The human brain actually lights up with signals known as ultra weak photon emotions (UPEs), which are a byproduct of metabolic processes. Researchers have now been able to detect UPEs and determine what they were revealing about brain function. A new imaging technique called photoencephalography could someday harness UPE signals as a diagnostic tool to supplement PET scans and MRIs. From bioluminescent mushrooms in the undergrowth of a rainforest to alien sea creatures eerily glowing in the abyssal depths, glowing organisms light up some of the darkest places on Earth. But humans aren't among them—or, at least, we thought so. As a team of researchers—led by Haley Casey from Algoma University in Ontario, Canada—found out, the human brain can actually luminesce. They called these glimpses of light ultra weak photon emissions (UPEs), and they are a result of metabolic energy flow. As electrons degrade during a process known as oxidation, they lose energy and release photons with it. Our brains emit them in visible light, meaning that if we had the X-ray vision to see through each other's skulls in total darkness, we might be able to make out a faint glow. This is not technically bioluminescence—organisms that are bioluminescent rely on chemicals such as luciferin for their eerie light. It also isn't phosphorescence, which is absorbed energy released in the form of light. It isn't even thermal radiation, which can be seen in infrared and is emitted by anything over a temperature of absolute zero. UPEs are their own phenomenon, and can be detected from the outside. They can also be indicators of what is going on in the brain. '[UPEs] predict oxidative stress, aging, and neurodegeneration,' Casey and her research team said in their study, recently published in the journal Current Biology. 'UPEs are triggered by neurotransmitters and biophysical stimuli, but they are also generated by cells at rest and can be passively recorded using modern photodetectors in dark environments.' Previous studies found that the human body is capable of glowing, but Casey's team specifically zeroed in on the brain and what these emissions could tell us about brain activity and health. They also were trying to prove that UPE signals from the brain could be distinguished from background photon noise. Subjects wore an EEG cap that had electrodes attached, along with photomultiplier tubes, to monitor brain activity. Photomultiplier tubes are so hypersensitive that they can pick up even the faintest trace of light. What the researchers were testing out was a new technique they devised (still in development) called photoencephalography. There are two major advantages of using photoencephalography over other methods (like PET scans and even less invasive fNIRS and fMRI scans): it is non-invasive, and it is less likely that results will be confused by the test itself. Other methods can either spark neural activity or suppress it, but photoencephalography does neither. As a result, passive measurement of brain activity is undisturbed and allows for detection of electromagnetic stimuli in the surrounding environment. Searching for UPE signals, the researchers focused on the left occipital lobe of the brain (which specializes in visual processing) and the right temporal lobe (which is instrumental to learning and remembering nonverbal information such as music). They were curious as to whether UPE signals from either lobe would show up as distinct from background noise, and when compared to background photons, the signals from the brain did in fact stand out as a result of their unique frequency. In the dark, subjects were also given sound-based tasks to accomplish without needing to see what they were doing. They were told to open and close their eyes before and after listening to music. UPEs were logged during tasks done with open and closed eyes—both of which have obvious brain signatures. There were variations in UPE output depending on the task being performed, and the activity detected by the EEG cap was also highly correlated with UPE signals. UPEs could possibly help with diagnosing neurological conditions in the future. 'Because UPEs are related to oxidative metabolism, the most immediately relevant applications might include the detection of budding brain tumors, excitotoxic lesions, mild traumatic injuries, and neurotoxic insults,' Casey said. Photoencephalography won't be replacing MRIs just yet, but it will someday shine a light on what we couldn't see before. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
