From the hearts of family members
"I thought I was going to take care of my child forever. Maybe I won't live forever."
"I
am the mother of a 27 year old son with autism. My biggest fear is who
will care for him when me and my husband no longer can. I really don;'t
have any family members that he can live with. Group homes concern me
greatly because he has limited communication skills and could easily be
mistreated or neglected. My only option right now would be a very
expensive Private residential facility.We need more choices available as
to a quality place close to home that we could feel good about . Like
every other parent all I want is a place where I know my son can have a
full life and be treated with dignity and respect. Thank you for hearing
my concerns."
"My
son needs help in life. He has AS and does well in school, but needs
help with daily living. I do not see a good option for his housing at
this time. It is a great concern as the young person needs help and the
parents are getting older. We are doing all that we can and have for
all of his life, of course. It makes it hard to sleep at night. Thank
you for all that you are doing."
"I
have a son who wants to be independent. Works part time and collects
SSDI We can not find a decent place for him to live Its a real problem"
"Fifteen
years ago my husband and I started talking to friends that also had
daughters with intellectual disabilities about finding a house that all
three families could purchase. It was obvious that we could all then
afford to hire support staff and also, if one family moved, the girls
would always know at least one other roommate before getting used to
another. We have been ready to start the process for 6 years. The other
families are still not ready. I have been noticing that as my daughter
Michele is getting older she is not as excited about the prospect of
moving. She was 6 years ago. I need to start working on plan B and
have quit work to find appropriate housing in Plano. It is not an easy
process and will take some time. My husband and I need to feel good
about where we place Michele before we die. Being around during the
transition is the right thing to do for her as well. We plan to be part
of her life wherever she lives." Irene
"My 17
year old son, Michael, has Down syndrome. He will be graduating from
high school in the next 4 years so we are looking for housing
opportunities for him in the Dallas area. He is very independent and is
expecting to graduate and go to college and live on his own.
Unfortunately there are not many options for him today to meet that
goal. Therefore, we are working with Robin and her team to develop
housing options in the Dallas area so our son will have a safe home to
live in when he moves out of our home. He will not be able to live 100%
on his own so we need a community that offers assistance and services to
him." Kari Hatfield
"Our family would be truly blessed if we could count on residential housing for our son as he ages. Coley is 17 and has a number of developmental disabilities due to fetal alcohol syndrome. We
adopted Coley from Russia when he was two years old and have tried to
help him navigate the world to our best ability since we brought him
home. His disabilities have prohibited his ability to
mature but we would love for him to have the opportunity to be as
independent as possible. As we have researched options and
prepared for Coley’s future it has become clear that there is a
critical need for services that support adults with disabilities in our
community. " Tammy Toll
"I
do not know but my son is 33 years old and he lives at home, works 12
hours a week and needs the camaraderie of living with others and I also
need to know that he will be okay once I am no longer here."
"My
daughter is 29. She wasn't supposed to live more than a week when she
was born. She might outlive me! I'm not going to die!"
"We live in the Houston area now. I know my son would love to be in "his own place" one of these days!"
"One
of my children is a high functioning asperger with ADD, Bi-Polar and
depression. HE needs to be reminded of basic hygiene and medication
needs. Yet one of his siblings has epilepsy and can take care of
herself she just needs monitoring. How can we make a community for
adults that want to be independent but have differing monitoring needs?"
"We
have twins and in process of adopting 3rd special needs. I think a
special needs house for respite is needed for community. There are a lot
of folks who are aging and could use a break but don't have finances."
"Providing
more group home settings with supervision would help many adults
transition to greater independence. Educating neighbors about their
group home neighbors would help to alleviate their concerns."
"My
son has autism and it is doubtful that he will ever be able to live
completely on his own. Since Texas ranks near the BOTTOM in mental
health issues I planned to move to another state with better services as
I near the end of my life. I am currently 48."