Staff are specially trained to support participants throughout the process of developing the skills necessary to reintegrate into their communities. In this model, entire teams become fully involved in residents’ progress toward becoming more independent. Our pilot program has integrated occupational therapists into residential care teams in six of our 14 ABI waiver group homes. This model is showing promise and can – if implemented broadly – help fulfill the opportunity opened by Hutchinson: to integrate individuals with ABI into the community for fuller, more satisfying and more independent lives. We now have insights and tools to achieve this with relatively modest investments.Ī new model of care being piloted in Central Massachusetts by MAB Community Services supports adults with ABI to relearn skills for greater independence. To achieve the intent behind Hutchinson, we must change not only where adults with ABI live we must (and can) change how they live. After moving to group homes, most adults with ABI continue to live as though still institutionalized, with dedicated and caring direct care staff doing everything for them, from personal care to cooking, laundry and shopping. Now, more than 1,000 adults with ABI in Massachusetts, who had been sequestered in nursing homes and rehab hospitals, are living in community group homes.īut the vision behind the ABI waiver program – that adults with ABI could regain agency over their own lives – remains largely unfulfilled. This ABI waiver program is a great step forward – one that was championed by family members, advocates, legislators and leaders in state government. Patrick settlement transitioned hundreds of Massachusetts adults with brain injuries from nursing homes into the community. Believing that these individuals could thrive if they were in a community setting where they could relearn skills and rebuild their lives, advocates worked hard to change these circumstances.Ĭhange began in 2008, when the landmark Hutchinson v. Millions of Americans are living with the effects of an acquired brain injury (ABI) caused by infectious disease, stroke, injury, overdose or other factors that has rendered them incapable of caring for themselves in basic ways.įollowing hospitalization, thousands of individuals whose families are unable to care for them at home spend years living in institutions, often in nursing homes.
0 kommentar(er)
