A new crisis bed for adults with developmental disabilities is among the plans for Hopewell Children’s Homes after it received $440,169 in provincial funding Friday.
Hopewell currently operates a number of sites for children and adults with developmental disabilities, including residential care, respite support and recreational services.
The funding announced Friday at Ooster House will allow Hopewell to open an additional four out-of-home beds in a new facility, one of which will be a crisis bed, said executive director Kim Rodrigues.
40 families in Guelph and Wellington County currently use Hopewell’s respite service for adults with developmental disabilities at its Ooster House facility on a yearly basis.
Usually, parents or caregivers will drop off the adult with a developmental disability for a weekend or a week at a time.
“They come here and actually have a lot of fun,” said Rodrigues. “It’s not just a break for the parents, sometimes the child wants a break from their parents or their caregivers. So they come here and hang out with their friends for the weekend or for the week, sometimes a little longer and then they go home.”
That service is scheduled, notes Rodrigues. Families know in advanced when they will be able to drop off the adult family member with developmental disability.
There is a need for the crisis bed that will be added thanks to Friday’s funding announcement, said Rodrigues.
“Maybe in the middle of the night, something has happened and an aging caregiver is at the hospital — they find out there is an adult child at home and they have to do something for them tonight — what’s going to happen?” she said.
The crisis bed can support families in the short term in emergency or crisis situations.
The additional three beds that will be added may be used for medium-term stays of four to eight weeks, or longer.
Rodrigues suggests another hypothetical situation for those medium stays.
“A single parent has had to undergo surgery and they can’t care for their child, who is quite active. They are going to be off for six to eight weeks,” she said.
Some of the funding will also go toward additional training for staff.
“There is a demand on our staff to be able to support folks with more complex needs. Unfortunately, at times the way they are expressing their needs — they could end up hurting somebody. We want to make sure all of our staff has enhanced training for those situations,” said Rodrigues.
“All of our staff in this sector are fantastic,” she added.
Friday’s funding announcement also included $170,000 for Community Living Guelph Wellington to assist in a expanding its partnership between that agency and Habitat for humanity.
The funding will allow the agency to hire a coordinator over a two-year period to look at trends and ways to partner with Habitat, said Laura Hanley, executive director of Community Living Guelph Wellington.
Community Living Guelph Wellington has an existing partnership with Habitat at its Cityview Village build, which is currently under construction.
“The goal of this grant is to build a more formalized partnership going forward on affordable housing and to provide more access to people with developmental disabilities to actually have access to affordable housing,” said Hanley.
