This is so true!!! It actually is a daycare for people w special needs. Staff is miserable most of the time, they gave poor communication skills & I feel so stuck!!
I agree. I'm a developmentally disabled adult who has been in one 5 years ago and it traumatized me so much that I have gotten bullied for that experience because not everyone knows what it is like for someone like myself to have been through something like this as a young adult
I used to work in a group home which consisted of a day program component at the office where the higher-up staff worked and the day program room at the organization looked like a Kindergarten classroom, and it was all gussied up too.
Timely video! We just went to view first dayhab as our daughter will be aging out of school in January. The tears were flowing as we walked out. I think my exact words were, "No child works just as hard or probably harder than all the others and expects to end up in a place like this with no way to pursue their dreams!!! It's not fair!!!
A day at day programs really isn't a very effective use of time for adults with disabilities. The whole disability system is really a pretended and unnatural array of programs that are designed to help people with disabilities reach their potentials but all they do is keep them there forever and stay dependent on people and never accomplish their goals. This goes for not only day programs but sheltered workshops and group homes as well. Adults with disabilities are kept together in one group where no one knows one another, away from everybody else and kept in view of nondisabled elders, trapped in a room, not allowed to leave their sight, ordered around, and followed everywhere. These programs are a combination of school, IEP's, busy work, child norms, and rudimentary activities and skills reintroduced all over again, or a prison that doesn't lock people up but takes away their autonomy and doesn't allow people to venture out, run off, or experience anything that they can see or access in the free world. It's like getting up early to go to school all over again and be taught the same shit over and over again with no growth in curriculum or new activities or skills taught, and nobody graduates. I have autism spectrum disorders, and this would be my worst nightmare.
And worse because now you realize you're too old for that but bound to stay forever and never learn anything new with this so-called "education," or graduate or leave.
Yeah, because some people just go directly to these places right after graduating from their home high schools, leaving real friends and academics behind, to end up in their pretended environment that's more like a prison disguised as an organized social activity for adults who can't work or own a home, with new so-called friends gaining so-called skills they'll never use, and no opportunities to pursue their dreams. It's pathetic too that in high school people get more freedom compared to these places. It's just a backward approach from the original if the original were the regular route before. Plus, in high school you still understand the norms, rules, and limits because everyone is in close proximity in the same building every day following the same routine, but then as adults we all want the same independence as everyone else our ages, but you can't have it because the system prevents it, and you don't understand it anymore because it was just for kids all along.
Right, and never tell management of day programs that you want to go to get a girlfriend. Never do that. Because they make it look like it’s a formal place like work. Or think that some groups can’t do relationships. Confusion a lot of confusion is in the day program setting they repeatedly say that it’s not a social club yet that’s what a lot of them do movies cards, or skill sensory activities. They say that I would just randomly walk around the building. Only reason I did that was because I never knew how many people were in each room or a group and sometimes they would say no one was there when there was handful of people in the room. Family say that their kids like it some of them really did not. I learned a lot from seeing a few of the programs in my state.
What you say is true. But in our society there are very little options for individuals like my daughter. We never wanted this for our daughter. Yes. She has learned life skills. Socialization and she has great friendships with the other clients there. She has a lot of time outside of her day program also. With family and church. I appreciate your thoughts and encouragement though.
I go to a community based day program where we are out and about all day going to multiple places. Today the staff made me cry because even though we are community based the staff is still obsessive about us eating lunch at 12 pm and we went to the dine in theater today and I bought my own lunch from home because the movie theater staff don't care and my day program staff at first didn’t let us eat our lunch from home until 11:30 am because of her obsessing over the set lunch time at 12 pm and this was after i watched the guy in my group sitting next to me eat his food that she let him eat right away because he ordered it from the server!! Thankfully after I started crying she let me eat my lunch but still....
What about a 21-year-old adult with autism nonverbal? No socialization no interest.s really except maybe her iPad or taking drives out to stores or seeing things. The only suggestion was a day program,because she cannot work etc. She cannot work due to attention, but she’s very smart. She can elope, however. was not impressed with the day programs except maybe one. And all the adults were just hanging out & not enough supervision. Really just trying to decide what to do. Right now we can get her out into the community shopping, etc. doing some chores and having fun. Just would like other people experiences.
I took a deep breath before listening to this video. Because I knew that I would hear truth from listening to your other videos. First, I absolutely love my son’s day program. He was a hot mess when Covid came. They have made enormous strides in such a short amount of time. The program does a great job doing the things you mentioned plus integration into the community. I think the utility is there for adult -children like my son. He needed a need a highly structured, & predictable environment. Furthermore, staff that is highly trained and familiar with him. Having said that, this video has prompted me to look at resources, and my son’s time. Am I using it to his/our advantage?
I understand the concept of sheltering in a way and I don’t know if the systems learned this from the Catholic Church, or the institutions or both. But it’s out of fear. But much respect to families, wanting their kids to be brought up in a godly way, but the Bible says to be in the world, but not of it to be in the world to preach the gospel, but not to join with the thinking of of the world.
Client-directed 1:1 staffing absolutely has the potential to provide greater gains than a day program, allowing for real choice, real skill building, and real community integration and social networking. It has that potential. The problem I have seen is that this sort of individualized, ideally client-directed scenario doesn't provide a lot of staff oversight as compared with a day program. If a staff is choosing to provide support to their phone rather than their client at a day program, they're going to get called out on it by their fellow staff. ISL staff or PAs? Not so much; it typically falls to the individual with the disability to locate the appropriate person to report this concern and adequately communicate what the concern is (and be believed, of course.) Do you have any thoughts on how individualized 1:1 staffing quality can be more consistently improved?
