Individuals With Developmental Disabilities
The thrust of our work with adults with complex needs is to help create enduring foundations of home, community and future in their lives. They often have capacities, strengths and goals that are overlooked by environments where ‘management’ overshadows growth. They’re often hindered, unwittingly, by caregivers, from becoming their own person and developing their own notion of what their life will come to be.
Regardless of their history or circumstance, our aim is to provide these individuals with an environment of healing, safety and opportunity to create their future.
Adults losing their homes
Research on societal cost and outcomes is clear. Smaller home settings for adults with disability are superior to institutional settings. (National Council on Disability. April 2015, Issue 32. P.13. American Public Health Association). (The ARC. Out of the Shadows).
The current problem is that large numbers of adults with complex needs are at risk of being institutionalized or becoming homeless as their parent or sibling caregivers’ age. (Annie E. Casey Foundation). (US NEWS “Caring for a Sibling With Special Needs"). Many more are already compromised in large institutional environments that add to the trauma they’ve already experienced in their lives (National Council on Disability; April 2015, Issue 32. P.13. American Public Health Association).
At Abbott House, our philosophy and practice are geared to providing adults the foundational development they need to thrive in these smaller family and home settings.
The Need
Adults with complex needs will not ‘bootstrap’ themselves out of their plight and into prospering futures. They critically depend on our professional intervention and partnership.
Through counseling, health care, life skills, employment training and the like, we help them find their place in the world.
