Parents of Disabled Resort to Extremes

There was a story this week in the Wall St Journal that just broke my heart. Needing Assistance, Parents of Disabled Resort to Extremes . -- Two years ago, Blake Misura, a single father, moved out of the A-frame house that he built and shared with his 21-year-old autistic son. His new home: a used camper 150 feet away. Mr. Misura now sleeps and eats in the cramped trailer, cooking on a two-burner hot plate, or the gas grill outside. Then he walks over to visit his only child, Andy, who still lives in their family home. The arrangement was set up so Mr. Misura could get the state to provide someone to stay with Andy while he worked an overnight shift at the local water-treatment plant. The state said people with disabilities who live alone get top priority for in-home help. "I'm allowed to go over there," says the 47-year-old Mr. Misura, who has been taking care of Andy since he and his wife divorced a few years ago. "I just can't live there." Faced with the difficulty of getting scarce help for their mentally or physically frail children, some parents are resorting to measures they once considered unthinkable. A Chicago mother dropped off her adult daughter, who has the mental functioning of a 7-year-old, at a shelter, after being told only the homeless or orphans could get into a supervised group home. A couple in Georgia, raising four other children, went to court and let their autistic son become a ward of the state in a bid to get him into therapeutic foster care. Caregivers are the most unappreciated workers in our society, earning often little more than minimum wage, yet always in demand. We have got to figure out a way to support and help parents who do want to take care of their disabled children. Using every incentive to encourage families to take care of their own family members at home will, in the end, prove far less expensive that forcing them to abandon their adult, disabled children to state care. Posted by Jill Fallon at September 24, 2005 2:07 PM | Permalink