Natural supports - more discussion

[Guest guest]

Natural supports - more discussion

The reason the " natural supports " survey we are doing right now is

important is that policy makers - at the highest levels - see " natural

supports "

as the answer to solving the waitlists without any more funding. They

assume that all of us have family, friends, neighbors, churches, etc., that can

be recruited for free to provide services for individuals with

disabilities, in place of paid staff.

Natural supports usually involve relationships with family members,

friends, co-workers, neighbors and acquaintances, and are of a reciprocal

(give-and-take) nature. Yet, to my knowledge, no one has ever studied " natural

supports " - at least from a parent's, caregiver or individual with

disabilities point of view. Are they REALLY out there? Do folks REALLY use

them.

Are there neighbors, friends and family actually willing to do this kind of

work for free?

Are natural supports more available to young, smaller " cuter " and easy to

manage children? Do they become less and less available as one's child

gets older? What about when one's child is 60, non-verbal, with severe

medical and behavioral challenges and other disabilities. Are there going to

be

" natural supports " for that child?

There is a group of parents/professionals who tout " natural supports " as

the only way to go. Is this because it has worked for them - because they

have family, neighbors, etc., who pitch in? Because their child is young

and easy and rewarding to work with? Or, are they simply great ate getting

natural supports for their child? What about when these parents are dead?

Should they use their success as a basis for pushing the " natural

supports " agenda and process on everyone else?

Does the fact that there are more and more working folks across the country

(male and female) influence the number of volunteers and help one might be

able to recruit? How does one recruit " natural supports " anyway?

Is it appropriate and psychologically healthy - for both the parent and the

child - to keep a child in a family home years after most people would

normally start an independent " real life " of their own in the community?

Again, no one seems to have thoroughly studies these issues.

The current survey is NOT designed to review in depth the issues outlined

above. It is a brief survey, the results of which will hopefully be the

prompting for some major funding agency to actually do a thorough survey on

all aspects of " natural supports " to answer the questions above, and more,

before it becomes the policy of the land.

I know that in our own situation with my own son, there was a total

rejection of our family and its needs by our immediate families. When we

started

an intense therapy program at home, we recruited over 350 volunteers over

a 6 year period - but it took intensive amounts of efforts, marketing

skills and organizational skills on our part to do this, and it was for the

specific purpose of in-home therapy. Without that specific purpose, we would

have had no volunteers.

So, again, your assistance is asked in completing this survey at:

_http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JWWTXBF_

(http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JWWTXBF)

and in passing it along to others.

Denver Fox

Moderator, NOEWAIT