A Plan, A Farm, A Home
December 13, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
A potentially double-good plan involves (1) preserving one of the last strips of undeveloped land within Dubuque’s city limits and (2) creating a residential facility with an on-site farm for autistic adults: Today’s THOnline tells more about an effort to preserve green space and provide a place to live, and to work, for autistic adults. $985,000 has to be raised to purchase the property and the whole project could cost some $2million, so there’s a lot more to do. Says Craig Beytien, whose autistic son is 15 years old, “‘We’ve got the passion and some ability, but does the economic model support it?’”Goes without saying—hoping that it can, and will.
I can only hope these sorts of places will be the norm someday!
That sounds like a fantastic plan- I hope that they can put it together. One of the nicest residential facilities that I’ve ever been in was a very large house (with attached school) out in the country. They used their property extensively to do things like teach the boys how to garden (they grew all of their own vegetables). It was quite a place, and I’d love to see more of them.
Yeah,that’s nice and all,but if this is anything like the places I have contacted,they are likely to be very picky about the people they let in.You have to be fairly high functioning,and you have to be able to work.
Meaning this,and most other group homes,will most likely only not let in an adult who is either lower functioning, or has serious medical conditions in addition to autism.Sometimes this can be something as simple as epilepsy,with grand mal seizures,that is not controlled by medication.But certainly it would include those who have conditions as serious as mitochondrial disease,or Fragile X,where autism is only one aspect of a far more complicated syndrome.
The investors wouldn’t like too many high risk people living under one roof.Insurance and all that.We have to run these things like a business, and put up the illusion we care about the disabled.
Note also how this article also perpetuates the myth,that autistic adults are somehow a new phenomenon.
@Roger,
thanks for pointing all that out—-as for “being very picky about the people they let in,” we’ve encountered some of this time and again in regard to Charlie. Not enough language—-too many challenging behaviors—academic stills not at the “right level”—–leading to exclusion from programs and activities that are supposed to be for him.