A Multitude of Musings

Last Sunday, my husband asked me whether I had any interesting events this week. I said no, I would just go to day activities and that’s it. Last week, the consultant psychologist on my case called the long-term care funding agency to ask how far they are with processing my application. It’d been sitting with them since Dec 20 and they formally need to finish the process within six to eight weeks. They said it’s on the roll, but that they’d been busy because of the holidays.

Last Thursday, my support coordinator asked whether I wanted to start looking at group homes now while we’re waiting for the funding to hopefully be approved. She had a particular group home in mind which has had an available room for months. I said okay.

She called the group home’s manager and was told I’m welcome to take a tour but to contact the home’s coordinator. Well, to make a long story short, I was invited to the tour yesterday.

This is a home for people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. The manager stressed that the current residents all function at a mental age of six months or so. Now I find the whole concept of mental age confusing, probably because I myself function much higher intellectually than emotionally. I mean, obviously I assumed these people can’t talk, but well. I don’t mind.

I drove by paratransit taxi to the home yesterday. It is in a city about 30 minutes from my home. I was told to ring the doorbell if I could find it and else to wait for my support coordinator to arrive. From the need to ring the doorbell, I assumed it’s a locked home. It is. I had already read up on it though and had read that the home has a fenced yard. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have liked a locked place. Like, there’s one my support coordinator has mentioned too in the city my day activities is in too, but that’s on the third floor of a nursing home building. I’d feel like I was in a prison then.

I asked the home’s coordinator why this is a locked home, since I assumed all residents are in wheelchairs. Turns out some can walk and may elope. So do I when in a meltdown.

We started the tour in one of the two living rooms. It had a lovely sensory atmosphere. The coordinator asked, since I arrived shortly past noon, whether I’d had lunch. I hadn’t, so she offered me a slice of bread. I liked that.

Once my support coordinator arrived, we talked about my care needs. I function emotionally at a really low level, which is why my support coordinator had believed this place might be for me. The home’s coordinator understood and liked the opportunity to get to know me.

In the home, you have your own bedroom. You share the bathroom with one other resident. Since most clients use diapers, not all bathrooms have a toilet, but the one adjacent to the available room does. Then there’s a large sensory bathroom with a tub. I loved it. They also have sensory materials to use in the living room or an individual resident’s room.

I didn’t get to tour the yard, but was told there are lots of swings in it, including a cocoon swing like the one I love at day activities. They also have one they can use indoors in the living room.

As for the rules, there are no strict visiting hours. Family are actively involved in the residents’ life. They also have volunteers who go for walks with the residents almost each evening. Sometimes, volunteers cook for the residents. When they don’t, the residents get readymade meals like the ones I got in the mental institution. Once a week, a music therapist comes to the home. It’s a facility which offers treatment, so you get the opportunity for physical, occupational or speech therapy if needed. There’s also an intellectual disability physician and a psychologist involved.

During the night, a staff sleeps in an upstairs room. All residents’ bedrooms are downstairs and there’s no need to go upstairs to find the night staff. Rather, they use technology to listen for suspicious noises in the bedrooms, but the coordinator did say this could be turned off in my bedroom if I were able to phone the night staff myself.

If I get funding for long-term care, it needs to be tweaked somehow if I want to live at this place, because my funding would be based on blindness and this is an intellectual disability facility. Then, the manager, physician, psychologist and all need to agree that I’m the right fit. This includes a risk assessment. The coordinator says this is in case of things like severe epilepsy, but my husband told me to mention elopement.

Of course, I feel internally conflicted as to whether I want this to work out. I’m excited about the facility itself, but still feel like I shouldn’t need this much care. I’m afraid the funding authority is going to agree here.

Once I’d returned home, my support coordinator called me. She had heard from the funding authority physician. The consultant psychologist had already explained my needs, but she wants to see me anyway. That appt is going to be tomorrow at 10AM. I assume this is to validate I in fact have the needs the application says I do. Then, the physician will write a report for the funding decision-maker, I guess.

My support coordinator is going on vacation on Feb 7 and won’t be back till the 25th. She said though that, if my funding gets approved while she’s on vacation and I want to start the process of applying at this living facility, I can do so with the care consultant and my support worker.