HELENA — March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, and the Department of Public Health and Human Services, or DPHHS, hosted community members at the capitol to educate the public on developmental disabilities.
State leaders and the public gathered in the capitol rotunda to educate the public about the ways people with and without disabilities come together to form strong and diverse communities.
One community member, Kat McCormick, spoke at the event.
Her son has Prader-Willi syndrome, which is a genetic disorder that causes delayed puberty, extreme and constant hunger, and an intellectual disability.
It affects roughly one in 20,000 people.
“I’m guilty of it too – we all want to say, ‘Oh we help, oh we care,’ but it tends to be one or two very specific disabilities that we see most often. I’m not taking away from those at all, but there’s so many others out there that I think raising this awareness and letting people know that there are things you can’t even imagine are happening...this sounds like a meme, but you don’t know the road someone is traveling until you’ve lived it,” McCormick said.
After the speakers, two groups performed dances—one with the Cohesion Dance Project and another with Aspen Adult Services.
Booths were also set up with resources for those who know someone or have developmental disabilities.
