“I’m not going to live always”
June 8, 2006 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
- Inadequate housing
- Public transportation
- Solid employment options
These are services in short supply for autistic adults in the southern Delaware region, according to a June 7th article in the Delaware Coast Press.
Theodis Bowe has two adult autistic sons. He rented an apartment for them to live in and checks on them regularly via cell phone and with personal visits. When Mr. Bowe searched for a group home for his son,
he found crowded places with little privacy, members suffering from drug and alcohol addictions, time limits on kitchen and bathroom use.“I don’t think they should be forced to live in a place that you wouldn’t want to live in yourself,” Bowe said.
Bonnie Zistl, whose autistic daughter, Ashley Dinn, is 21 year old, noted the difficulties in finding caregivers.
“My biggest dilemma is, I work a full-time job. You exhaust your friends getting them to babysit. They become not your friends real quick.”
While federal law mandates education for autistic children, there are no such provisions for autistic adults. As Pam James-White, the mother of 24-year old Antuan James says, “I’m not going to live always”——we need to start now to ensure that there are services tomorrow for today’s autistic chidren.
And for today’s autistic adults, like Ashley and Antuan.
Here in Calgary, there are a couple of agencies that offer supportive living alternatives. I’ve considered doing that myself. Basically, a non-disabled individual gets a stipend for sharing an apartment or a house with a disabled roommate. The non-disabled individual is expected to support the disabled person, but really they’re roommates and they share the duties of keeping the house clean and tidy, buying groceries, etc. etc.
If my roommate does end up moving out this summer, maybe I’ll apply for that after all.
I’ve read about similar kinds of living arrangements elsewhere (can’t remember where). What kind of qualifications do you need to have?
I don’t remember what the qualifications are. One girl I knew who was going to be doing it was studying psychology and working with autistic children.
I’ll probably post about it when I find the qualifications etc.