Thanks, James Strickland jr.

Assisted Cycling Tours mission statement is:

Our mission is to enhance the lives of people with disabilities and their families through providing a cycling experience which will increase their self confidence and allow the entire family to participate.

We seek to promote family, independence and well-being for all who participate.

The tours are located in Colorado.

by James S.

Well part two of “A Medical Necessity” has been a learning experience for me to say the least. I started out with very good intentions hoping to find an easy way for all of us parents to get some help with acquiring adaptive cycles or recumbent tricycles for our children and for our disabled veterans, what ever special needs they have.  This  endeavor is going to take a little longer than a night or two from the looks of it. All that I can promise is to compile as much information as possible that will be the most beneficial  to everyone.

This is an excerpt from www.thefreelibrary.com along with a link to the complete article.

Typically, a piece of adaptive equipment is utilized to increase a child’s function. Examples of adaptive equipment or assistive technology are wheelchairs, lifts, standing frames, gait trainers,augmentative communication devices, bath chairs, and recreational items such as swings or tricycles. The process of obtaining a particular piece of equipment is defined primarily by the funding source. The funding source may be through your child’s health insurance; it may be through the child’s school system; or it could be through private funding.

My child needs a piece of adaptive equipment now what? Well, it depends!.

I have tried to find information on writing a letter of medical necessity and who is supposed to actually do the writing, us, the doctor/therapist, or both.

This is an excerpt from the article “Writing letters of medical necessity“, also from www.thefreelibrary.com.

While it is typically the duty of a medical professional to write a Letter of Medical Necessity, there are other people whose opinions can help sway those reviewing the claim. Teachers, case managers, counselors and parents all provide different points of view that are valid to establishing medical necessity. Their description of how the patient functions in various settings and how that can be improved with the desired intervention can not always be provided by a medical professional. While their views should not be submitted alone, they are an excellent complement to a medical opinion.

There is more information to come in the next installment of A medical necessity.

I have been doing some research recently on the positive effects that bicycling can have on children and adults with disabilities. Having watched videos on the subject, read articles and listened to remarks from therapist on Youtube, everything seems to point to one conclusion. Bicycle riding is therapeutic, both mentally and physically for children as well as adults. The  problem is the cost. Most parents and adults wanting to get a recumbent tricycle or a bicycle that is made specifically for persons with disabilities can’t afford them. Carrying price tags ranging from two hundred eighty dollars for a basic tricycle to over five thousand dollars for a tandem cycle. If  a doctor and/or therapist decides that a child or adult needs the bicycle and/or tricycle for physical and emotional therapy, and tells the insurance company that it is medically necessary to help the child/adult with their therapy, then the insurance company should pay for it.  Right?

by Karen Karvonen

Some 30 years ago, Hal Honeyman opened a store to sell bikes. But he ended up peddling a more precious commodity—independence—by adapting bicycles for disabled kids who couldn’t otherwise enjoy them.

“Riding a bike is such an important rite of passage for many children,” says Honeyman, 50, who owns and operates the Bike Rack in St. Charles, Ill. (pop. 27,876).

Honeyman’s son, Jacob, was born with cerebral palsy and cannot walk. But when Jacob was 3, Honeyman realized his son nonetheless could ride a specially adapted bike—with an upright seat and harness to hold a rider and pedal straps to keep feet in place. He bought the special bike, modified it to fit Jacob’s proportions, and his son has been loving life on wheels ever since.

“Now Jacob rides around the neighborhood like other kids,” says Honeyman, who expanded his shop in 1997 to sell specialty bikes for disabled riders, customizing them for his customers’ unique needs. He estimates that his modified-bicycle business, Creative Mobility, has helped more than 3,000 children and adults to find mobility outside a wheelchair over the last decade.

In 2004, Honeyman started his nonprofit Project Mobility, which sponsors bike-fitting clinics and workshops nationwide. He’s assisted by employee Rick Leipold, who has a spinal cord injury and rides a hand-cycled recumbent bike. For those who can’t afford $2,000 to $4,500 for an adaptive bike, Project Mobility matches them with potential funding sources.

Project Mobility also supports dozens of adaptive cycling activities at hospitals, schools, parks and camps. Every August, Honeyman’s team assists kids from a local Shriners Hospital who spend a weekend cycling 30 miles a day along the Illinois River. Once or twice each week, Honeyman hauls adaptive bikes to an event, such as the annual Easter Seals picnic in Villa Park, Ill.

“He opens up a whole new world for kids who’ve never biked before and gives them joy and a real sense of pride,” says Ellie Cummings, a spokeswoman for Easter Seals.

Five years ago, Honeyman’s bikes caught the eye of Philip and Christeen Chase, of Kansas City, Mo., who were touring Chicago’s Abilities Expo with their son Benjamin, then 10 years old, who has cerebral palsy.

“We never thought Ben could ride a bike, but as soon as Hal strapped him in, he took off,” Philip says. “We were amazed.” Benjamin is now on his second adapted bike.

Honeyman enjoys the challenge of fitting a cycle to a specific rider’s needs. He developed joystick controls and up to 128 gear combinations for quadriplegics. For a right-hand amputee, he modifies the shifting and braking controls on a regular road bike and adds a quick-release device to click a prosthetic hand into the handlebar.

Recently, Honeyman adapted a tandem bike with hand supports, a four-point harness and shorter pedals to fit Jacob, now 14. “My wife or I ride upright in the back and Jacob’s in a recumbent position up front,” Honeyman says. “With this bike, we can take longer trips and go much faster, which Jacob really enjoys.”

Although about 75 percent of the bikes he fits are for children, Honeyman also works with adults. In 2006, Project Mobility adapted bikes for 40 amputees from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., who were riding 3,000 miles cross-country to raise money for wounded military-service members.

In 2004, the American Red Cross chapter in St. Charles honored Honeyman as a hometown hero, but Honeyman says his heroes are the kids he helps. v “A lot of them have had a dozen surgeries and every uphill battle you can think of. But they have such a tremendously positive outlook,” he says. “It teaches me a lot, and I draw my strength from them.”

(Photo by Kathryn Osgood)

David Whitmon

No article on Vineyard biking would be complete without David Whitmon. His bicycle built for three, the mane of feathers on his helmet, and his unwavering enthusiasm for cycling combine to make him an Island cycling icon. The Oak Bluffs resident, who’s fifty-three, grew up an avid cyclist in the Washington, D.C., area, moving to Martha’s Vineyard in 1983.

“I visited [the Island] for four days, and my jaw ached from smiling so much. Then I went home and drove to work in [Capital] Beltway traffic. I said, ‘This isn’t how human beings are supposed to live.’” At the time he wasn’t riding a bike much, but in 1989, after years of knee trouble, a doctor suggested double knee replacement. David bought a mountain bike instead. “I went from using a cane and going down stairs on my butt to riding a bike built for three,” he says.

The bicycle built for three, or triplet, is tricked out with lights, a rack with pannier bags, a 120-decibel air horn, and a trailer for trips to the grocery store. It even boasts a communication system so David and his two daughters, Gaia and Gracie, fourteen and twelve, can talk without shouting. Big and green, the triplet was dubbed “Boooger” (with three O’s) by the girls. “Many times,” David says, “I have people – strangers – say, ‘I watched your girls grow up on that bike.’”

In addition to alleviating his knee troubles, cycling has helped David through the difficulties of parenthood: Gaia has Asperger Syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism, and Gracie is autistic. Cycling has proven particularly beneficial for Gracie, who struggles with verbalization. “When she was very young we thought maybe she was deaf, but on the bike she began to hum and sing and talk. She would clap, and I would think, ‘That’s great, but it means she’s not holding the handlebars!’”

“They may get to an age, especially Gaia, when they don’t want to ride with me. But I hope they have good memories,” David says. “It’s a wonderful way to raise children.”

HealthSouth is hosting a reception at 10AM to greet the arrival of the AAA riders.