Where will they live?

[Guest guest]

There is a tidal wave of adults with developmental disabilities coming at us. Many of them are your children, soon-to-be adults. Where will they live when they can no longer live with you or when they choose to no longer live with you?

Needed: An entire range of safe, supported living environments in the State of Florida.

Not needed: The continued obstruction by those who oppose the development of a diverse range of living options and the rights of people with developmental disabilities to choose where they want to live and with whom.

While you or I might not choose Bittersweet Farms or Lambs Farm or similar communities, we should respect the wishes of those who would make that choice and support them in lobbying for the elimination of discriminatory statutes in Florida law that attempt to define in arbitrary ways where people with Developmental Disabilities may or may not live. Parent-driven and private initiatives need to be supported. When the time comes, won't you want choices? For some of us, that time has come.

The number of adults with autism is growing

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

The numbers are staggering. One in every 150 babies in the U.S. is now born with autism. The rate for boys is even higher. But what happens to those children when they grow up?

Beth Meyer is a hard worker. Beth has always been good with her hands. But her autism affects her ability to interact with people. Vicki Obee-Hilty is executive director of Bittersweet Farms in Whitehouse where the focus is on adults with autism. "It is not an institution. It's not where you've just taken a group of people and isolated them. This is a viable farm." A farm Beth and 29 other adults call home. Beth has an apartment there and a paying job. Phil Bartus goes for the day program. He has his own apartment off-site, with some help. Phil makes furniture in the woodshop and is also a ham radio operator. Phil and Beth are both highly functioning. Yet many autistic adults are unable to work. They live with family or in group homes, and their numbers are growing. In the twenty-six years since Bittersweet opened, autism diagnoses have soared nearly 1,000 percent. Vicki says, "These kids are coming through the system. You're seeing a bubble in the numbers now. Parents now have teenagers and they're saying 'what is the next step'?"

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/story?section=news/local & id=7135453