Hello Friends,
I hope you and your family are well. As parents, we are important to the growth and well-being of our children. However, we should never blame ourselves for our children’s suffering or their failure to become the adults who we admire.
Recently, I joined a NAMI group and was amazed to find that parents, both male and female, took part in the support group, and were expressing their needs regarding their adult sons and daughters who were not living at home. Everyone had a question regarding what to do about an issue, where to get the needed help, and how to respond to the adult in question. What was notable was that these were adults living on their own, but parents were concerned about the safety and well- being of their adult children.
That brings me to a question that I have addressed in my previous articles concerning putting in place housing for special needs adults before the parents pass on. Some years ago, I attended a conference put on by the Federation for Children with Special Needs. Every participant had three topics from which to choose, and one of my topics was “housing.” Using her own special needs daughter as an example, the speaker showed us how we could be creative with regards to housing. In addition to the medical needs of her daughter, her daughter was wheel chair bound and needed twenty-four hour care. The speaker and her husband bought a condo and left the house for her daughter and maybe one roommate, and hired someone to care for her daughter. She also applied for section 8 housing which was a ten year wait but would give her daughter and her roommate affordable rent when the section 8 was approved.
She also told us about the yellow house in Norwood, how John Roche, a Developer, partnered with Norwood Housing Authority to build this house for Special Needs Adults. These adults have had the flexibility to live with peers, share chores, work part-time, and have staff on site to support them. Since then, the Yellow House has been used as a model for special need housing for adults. Read the full article here. I favor creative housing for my daughter, but this endeavor will involve parents coming together with local Government officials, coordinating, and planning to make this happen. I would love for you to comment on this article. Please tell me your thoughts on creative housing. Is this a viable option?
Written by: Joan M. Blake, author and parent, of a special need’s daughter.