Overview
Children's Residential
Adult Residential
Complementing our Children's and Adult Programs, IDDI's residences provide sensory-rich, relaxing environments. Trained direct care staff are supervised by managers in homes 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with awake staff coverage at night. Individuals are encouraged to decorate their rooms to reflect individual personality and style. The homes focus on meal time skills, functional communication, grooming, and daily living skills. IDDI's open-door policy allows family members to visit any time of the day or evening, and there are also on-site accommodations for parents visiting from out-of-town.
The Residential Department of IDDI's Children's Program serves children up to the age of 22. Our focus is to teach children the basic skills of everyday living. We set goals for the children that include feeding skills, cooking, bathing, and basic hygiene. We evaluate each child's ability to communicate, and develop methods to improve communication, working in conjunction with speech therapists. Our physical therapists also work closely with the Residential Department in evaluating each child's ambulation skills, developing interventions designed to improve these skills.
Children with complex medical needs are the focus of our Nursing Department. The Residential Department serves as a vital resource to nursing in order to provide ongoing data to better track and treat, and thereby improve each child's overall quality of life. The Residential Department needs to assist and guide the children through the stages of childhood and adolescence, much the same as any parent would prepare a child to enter adulthood. For this reason, we focus on basic skills, and then expand on these skills as the child progresses to the next level.
Because the Children's Residential program focuses on the children at IDDI, parents and guardians are a vital part of the plan of care. Any intervention, whether feeding, bathing, ambulating, or medicating, is first approved by the parent and guardian. The parents/guardians are also an essential source of information and recommendations. The children often have visits at home, and any plan of care that has shown success is always shared with parents and guardians, as it generally helps them greatly with their home visits. Activities are designed around the child's functioning level, and time is always allowed for the children to play, as children like to do.
Our job in the Residential Department is to look past the child's disabilities and devise a plan of care that enables the child to function, with assistance, in the adult world. They need to learn everything that any child needs to learn, and we continue to find adaptive ways to accomplish that goal.
For more information on Children's Residential services, contact our Director of Children's Residential Services, Gloria Reposa-Souza at 508-644-3101, ext. 3312, or email greposa-souza@iddicommunity.org.
IDDI's Adult Program's guiding vision is "Supporting Adults to Success and Achievement," and as such, is dedicated to creating a nurturing environment where people will be treated with dignity, care and compassion, and supported to reach their full potential while becoming contributing members of the community.
The Adult Residential Program supports individuals in making choices and decisions concerning how they want to live their lives. Adult Residential Services provides 24 hour supports, 365 days a year in several tastefully decorated homes. As the focus of the Children's Program is on departmental decisions in conjunction with parental choices and approval, the Adult Program supports and assists each individual to make their own decisions while understanding risk and choice. We support the rights of each person as a valued member of the community and place emphasis on each person's contributions to the community. We encourage individuals to participate in all aspects of their daily routine, such as cooking, cleaning, personal hygiene, shopping, and money management, to the fullest extent possible, always striving to reach individualized personal goals.
Other important focuses within the Adult Residential Program are to support and assist individuals in fully accessing their community; becoming active contributing community members; and developing and maintaining friendships while encouraging individuals to achieve his or her highest degree of personal well being, independence and accomplishment.
Our Community Support staff works closely with individuals, residential supervisors and the Adult Team to identify a variety of community, volunteer, educational, and recreational options that may interest people.
The Adult Team is a collaborative, multi-disciplinary team of professionals who share information on each person supported, and who work together to ensure individualized choice, programs, and overall supports are maintained. In the Adult Program the individual's choice and preferences are the central focus of all planning and decision making.
For more information on Adult Residential Services, contact our Director of Adult Services, Keith Duhamel at 508-644-3101, ext. 3278, or email kduhamel@iddicommunity.org.