October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month and to celebrate, our Man of the Month is Paul Berger. Paul is the award-winning author of “How to Conquer the World With One Hand… And an Attitude,” chronicling his adventures in returning to work and to a meaningful life after suffering a severely disabling stroke at the young age of 36.

On Wednesday, Paul spent the day with about 100 other dedicated stroke and heart disease advocates visiting members of Congress to urge enactment of legislation to make health insurance more accessible, affordable, and adequate. Paul’s stroke is one of those “pre-existing conditions” that can make insurance inaccessible and unaffordable. And many policies have inadequate benefits to cover the rehabilitation services needed after stroke—speech, physical and occupational therapy services that should extend for months—not weeks—as long as the patient continues to show progress.

Many stroke survivors like Paul have insurance that is tied to their disability status. So the goal of returning to work is complicated by the specter of losing health insurance that is not available or affordable through the prospective employer. While Paul could not return to his pre-stroke profession—a public policy advisor in urban redevelopment—he persisted in finding employment. First as an accounting clerk, then returning to school to learn computer-aided drafting, and later as a publisher and motivational speaker—despite his continued post-stroke speech problems (“aphasia”) and right-sided paralysis.

Paul runs his own company, Positive Power Publishing, where he proves everyday that stroke survivors and other people with disabilities can be productive, tax-paying members of the workforce, doing jobs well beyond the imagination of most rehabilitation professionals and vocational counselors. Paul’s message to others, “If I can do it, you can do it too!”

To learn more about Paul’s inspirational journey, visit his website, www.strokesurivor.com. To learn more about National Disability Employment Awareness Month, visit the Department of Labor’s site: http://www.dol.gov/odep/faqs/ndeam.htm.

Related posts:

1. June 2010 Man of the Month: Paul F. Levy
2. May is Stroke Awareness Month & Congress in High Gear on HHS Appropriations
3. A Caregiver’s Perspective on the Health Reform Debate
4. A Caregiver’s View of the Stimulus Bill
5. September Man of the Month – The Rev. J. Bennett Guess

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 8:28 am and is filed under Disabilities, Man of the Month. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.