What happens when *special* kids grow up?

Question

Do they live with their parrents until they are too old to take care of them, and what happens after that? If they don't live with their parrents forever then isn't there some kind of government funded support for them. do they live in mental hospitals with phsycotics?

Answer 1

Alot of it depends on the severity of their disabilities. Many are able to learn job and independent living skills and are able to lead lives just like everyone else. Some severely disabled people do end up in an instituion of sorts. Others go to assisted living or halfway house type places who help them. Social Security os available for some financial support and there are loads of programs designed to teach skills to people with disabilities and even provide them with jobs. Hope this helps!

Answer 2

The lucky live with people who love and accept them, and encourage them to accomplish as much as they possibly can towards developing relationships beyond caregivers and the fullest independence possible for the individual.

Sadly, the others and sometimes before they are adults end up living in group homes. Here they are dollar signs, especially when the facilitly is operated by a for profit corporation.

The people who work in the homes, most of them, take their jobs to make a difference because the want to be caregivers for special needs people. However, the jobs are physically and emotionally very demanding, especially with severe and profound disabilities. The jobs do not pay the care givers well - they do not have degree's, but they do the MOST IMPORTANT work for the corporation. The guys and gals with the degree's who are telling everyone what to do, but are not getting their hands dirty are earning the highest dollars. BURNOUT occurs and the clients suffer the fallout.

The job is so hard. Most clients have little to no ability to communicate. Are frequently aggressive toward staff, who really are their to help them. The aggressive assults often cause minor injuries physically, but they cumulate on the overworked and under paid staff, who has been set up to fail letting stress and immediacy turn into abuse from mild to severe.

The staff turnover is a clue to the above situation, and also adds to the poor quality of life found in some group homes.

I speak from first hand-experiences.

Answer 3

You asked a great question!

My sister was born in December of 1965 and she has Down Syndrome. As was the standard practice in those unenlightened days, the doctors told my parents that my sister was "a mongolian idiot," that she would probably never even be able to take care of her own personal needs, and that they should institutionalize her and not even bring her home.

Luckily, my parents didn't take the advice of "the experts" and they brought my sister home. This was before there was a legal right to education for kids with disabilities, so our family had to fight to have my sister enrolled in school. Now children with disabilities have a legal right to a free appropriate public education, so that's a big improvement over what my family faced 41 years ago.

Anyway, unfortunately some people with special needs are overprotected and live with their parents until the parents are too old or pass away. My dad didn't want to let my sister move into a group home, even though my sister wanted to establish her independence & move away from home (into a situation where there was a live-in staff person to supervise and be available as needed.) I finally had to intervene to get my sister her independence.

Now she is almost 41, lives in a group home, and has a fiance, who also has Down Syndrome. They met at work. Yes, they both have jobs, they travel by public bus, and her fiance has an apartment in a program that provides support to help the residents be as independent as possible. My sister uses email to communicate with the rest of us, and although she certainly needs support to be safe and successful, she probably has a happier and more fulfilled life than most of us!

Depending on the severity of the disability, the outcome might not be quite as positive as that of my sister. But there are programs in most parts of the United States that provide housing, day programs or supporting work opportunities, transportation, medical assistance, etc., for adults with developmental disabilities. There is no reason that a person with developmental special needs should end up living in a placement with people who are mentally ill.

Answer 4

Guardianship must be set up for individuals who are not able to care for themselves. If not guardian is found then the individual is considered a ward of the state. It can be a tricky situation. If any money or assets are left to someone with special needs and it isn't "in-trust with a guardian" for them then the state can also claim that. This happened to a family I knew who left their property and money equally to their three children; however, they never turned guardianship of their autistic son over to one of his siblings. When the parent passed on, the siblings had to split the inheritance with the state and had to sue for guardianship. It was a brutal process.

There are various group home and residential settings that can be very appropriate and give special needs people a good quality of life. On the flip side there are also crappy places that do not always have qualified or empathetic staff to take care of individual needs.

Hopefully, if the child is provided with a good education and can learn work skills/ life skills they can be employable and learn to live in supervised housing. Some children are not able to aquire skills due to limited cognitive abilities and they tend to be more difficult to place in appropriate housing situations.

Overall, this is such a tough question to answer. It is an emotional and difficult process for many families to make plans for when they pass on....they lived their lives taking care of their special child but with age that becomes more difficult. I think our government needs to make more opportunities available to families with special needs children once the child exits the educational system. I work with autistic kids and now that they are 21 there are very few opportunities because of their diverse needs.

Things need to change. We need to develop better long-term care for our defenseless citizens.

Good question! I hope I didn't ramble too much!

Answer 5

Depending on the "specialness" of the child, they can become part of our society.
Children with learning disabilities can do anything, if they have learned what their strengths are. Many go to college and become professionals. (Many celebrities have admitted to having learning disabilities... Tom Cruise, Malcolm Jamal Warner)

The school that I teach in does a sixth grade project on disabilities, and at the end of the unit, they go to a County Care Center where adults that are non-verbal, mentally handicapped are taken care of. Usually social security pays for their needs.
We also visit a group home. THe adults have their own money, planned activities, and someone to help them 24/7 as they learn to live with each other.
We also take the children to see a Sheltered Workshop. This is a place where mentally handicapped, emotionally disturbed, or physically handicapped people can work and make a difference. There are many types of jobs. There is a man with cerebral palsy that has a special computer that allows him to make greeting cards, that the workshop sells for a small amount of $. They tear up books that can be recycled, There are groups of people who make plastic broom heads. It is a cool place to visit and enlightening.
In larger cities, there are places that find work for people with disabilities, they are usually janitorial jobs in nature, such as wiping tables at a mall or university.
Much of this depends on how active the parents and how diligent the high school transition team is to place these individuals.
The high school in my district has a COE program that places many students in jobs like grocery stores or encourages students to attend trade schools.
Unfortunately, there will always be people who are unable to work or function in our society, and they do end up institutionalized, but usually if the disablity is that severe, many don't live very long do to health problems.

Answer 6

It actually depends on their needs and their actual disabilities - some do live independently and forge their own lives, some obtain assistance on a regular basis, some live in group homes, and some live in long-term care facilities.

I've raised both of my disabled children to adulthood, and with the early intervention (and medical diagnoses/help/therapy), they are in College, living independently, and going on with their lives (although the one with the High Functioning Autism will need a little help on a monthly basis to continue to maintain their residence).

So there is a wide range of capabilities, and I can't really state that what has worked with my own children will work with others -- and that Hospitals are NOT the place of only resort for a person with a disability.

Answer 7

When special kids grow up they may in fact live in an institutionalized facility. Some are taught coping and functional skills, and are quite ready to live in a group-home type facility with assisted living. Depending on their disability and functional skills level determines how and where they are placed by various organizations.

I assume that you mean "parents" and "psychotics", and yes they may also live at home or in a hospital facility.

Answer 8

I was in Special Ed in School. I slowly went out of Special Ed all together. It is some years latter now and I still live with my parents. Finding a place that is under $400, on the bus rote; is hard. I don't like to do checks. If anyone can help me, please email me. I also need to learn how to organize.

Answer 9

My brother was a "special" kid (I'd almost forgotten that term)--the plan was that when my parents passed away I would be his guardian. Unfortunately he passed before my father, just recently. I would guess that unless the family has a very precise written plan that the person would end up in a nursing home or group home (depending upon their age and abilities).

Answer 10

Often with therapy they can end up living in a group home with supervision by a professional care giver and live with other disabled adults.
It is good to get started with rehab early so they can be ready to live on their own. Get occupational therapy for the kid! They can help them learn to be more independent.