KFA 504 8/26/14 webinar with Laurel Francoeur

[LinksEtc]

http://community.kidswithfoodallergies.org/pages/webinars

FREE WEBINAR: Answers To Your Questions About 504 Plans

RSVP: Reserve your seat by registering
WHEN: Tuesday, August 26, 2014
TIME: 1:00 pm Eastern time

Join us for a free Q&A meeting with attorney Laurel Francoeur. Submit your questions in advance on this registration form.

[Andiamo]

I am very disappointed with KWFA.  They had a webinar in June on Flying With Food Allergies.  The physician who spoke is a member of the Peanut Board (or whatever it is called).  He disclosed this at the beginning.  Then, of course, he proceeded to say there is no risk on a plane of a serious reaction if people are eating peanuts around a pa person.  Now I don`t believe anything KWFA says.  I feel like they have really reduced their credibility by having someone on the Peanut Board as one of their speakers.

[LinksEtc]

I am very disappointed with KWFA.  They had a webinar in June on Flying With Food Allergies.  The physician who spoke is a member of the Peanut Board (or whatever it is called).  He disclosed this at the beginning.  Then, of course, he proceeded to say there is no risk on a plane of a serious reaction if people are eating peanuts around a pa person.  Now I don`t believe anything KWFA says.  I feel like they have really reduced their credibility by having someone on the Peanut Board as one of their speakers.

Everybody is entitled to their own opinions ... truly, I mean that ... and concerns of potential conflicts of interest are understandable.  I'm not going to turn into the "opinion police".

I will say that I see food industry influence (or the potential to influence) all over the FA world ... whether it's FARRP at FARE & FAACT, corporate sponsors for conferences, industry $ funding research,
etc.  Quite frankly, my opinion is that FARRP should NOT be in a leadership position in any FA org ... FA orgs that claim to represent the FA community should be OUR representatives .... talking/communicating with FARRP and/or industry is fine & necessary ... but it would be best if these cozy relationships were severed.

Even in that KFA flying webinar, Laurel Francoeur pointed out how food industry congressional lobbying negatively impacted the rights that FA families have when flying.  That was really interesting to me & was something that I had not known.

I don't see any group, including FAS, as ALL good or ALL bad ... but that is just my opinion.  One great thing about us is that we are independent of industry.

Personally, I think that KFA has some excellent resources ... I may not agree with everything ... but I do trust and have benefited from many of their resources. 

My dd does not currently have low thresholds to any food and industry approach to FA issues would probably work fine for families like mine ... at the same time, I fully trust that CM's dd is as sensitive as described ... when docs or orgs try telling me that those people don't exist or that their reactions are impossible ... a big red flag goes up in my mind.

Research on thresholds, school policy, etc. should be of the best quality ... transparency, integrity, honesty, best study design, a full disclosure of the study's limitations, etc.

I'm rambling again.  This is becoming a habit.  Must.Stop.

[CMdeux]

This is what I love about meeting people here, too, Links-- I would not have understood the plight of those who have a "non-Top-8" allergen without all of you.  So when I hear "it doesn't matter-- not a priority allergen" from anyone, now that serves as a huge red flag for me, as well.

 

I think that aiming regulation and policy at the median patient experience is morally wrong.  On many levels.  The people who SHOULD be in our minds as policy is debated are those for whom protections are necessary.  Those for whom those protections MUST exist if they are to have any kind of quality of life.  That's the entire gist of ADAA, really, and was the reason for ADA to begin with.  Trusting others to "just do the right thing" was NOT sufficient for those who were out on the edges of the distribution. 

Same thing with food allergy.  The majority are already living pretty normally and without a lot of worry and "separate-ness" in their lifestyle.  KWIM?  Honestly, that's not the definition of disabled, though.  I understand why most people with food allergy don't consider it a "disabling" condition.  I feel that way about my own and DH's allergies.  No question that I would probably never have a reason to invoke ADA on my behalf or my DH's.    DD's experience is profoundly different; so different that she and we might not even be experiencing the same condition, when you get right down to it.  DH and I have no real impairment in terms of socializing, traveling, education, etc. etc.   DD does.  At every turn.

Her life is hard.  Why on earth a few people with $$ where their humanity ought to reside insist upon making it harder still by denying that what she experiences is authentic and not "all in her head" is beyond me.  Well, it's not-- I have faced it every day for nearly a decade and a half, after all-- but it's disgusting beyond words.

[maeve]

Back to the original post, I attended a KWFA webinar given by Ms. Francoeur earlier this year, and it was wonderful and very informative. I highly recommend attending this one. 

[Andiamo]

The female speaker at the KWFA webinar on Flying With Food Allergies was very informative.  But the male physician who spoke, the member of the Peanut Board, should not have been speaking.  My daughter was watching with me, days before she was getting on a plane to Italy by herself.  I did not appreciate him stating that serious airborne peanut reactions don`t occur on airplanes.  I had to then explain to her that he was incorrect, when I was the one initially telling her to watch this webinar for information before flying.  These speakers who have this obvious conflict of interest need to consider the fact that one of these days there will be a fatality because someone believed the incorrect information that they provided.

[ajasfolks2]

I still cannot find an after-the-event link to a read only version.

Anyone?

[LinksEtc]

They usually post a link to an archived webinar after a few days.