THE CALVERT COUNTY FAMILY SUPPORT PROGRAM

The Calvert County, Maryland, Association for Retarded Citizens (CARC) operates a Family Support Services program. The intent of this program is to prevent any person 21 years of age or younger from being institutionalized. The program provides respite, specialized family support, and integrated day care to approximately 50 people with developmental disabilities and their families. The specialized family support component attempts to help parents obtain any service or piece of special equipment which the family sees as needed in order to maintain a disabled member at home.

"As needed" basis. The staff at CARC are always conscious of the fact that different families have different needs. In response to this recognition, it provides service to families on an "as needed" basis. Frequency of contact, therefore, depends on families' needs: 1) one time or time limited intervention. Someone comes in for help, they get it and they leave; 2) come and go. These are families that do not need the day-to-day intervention that other families do, but their need does not go away; and, 3) on-going need. These families are in regular contact with project staff, and receive a variety of services regularly from financial support, to respite care, to just a friendly person to discuss problems over a cup of coffee.

Regardless of the frequency of the service needed, CARC sees three global benefits to the program: 1) to prevent out-of-home placement; 2) to postpone out-of-home placement; and, 3) to make life more pleasant while a family waits for an out-of-home placement.

Major types of service. As part of the family support service, CARC operates several types of services to meet families' needs.

Companions come to the family home. In this type of respite, a worker comes to the family home to provide respite and personal attendant assistance. Most of the families have a regular structured amount of in-home respite, such as 20 hours per week. However, this support is also available on an "as needed" basis for specific situations.

The child/adult goes to the respite worker's home. In other situations, individuals have agreed to provide respite care for families, but prefer to work in their own home. By offering families respite services in another home, families can stay at home for some privacy, or can go away from home knowing that their child is in a caring environment.

Respite at the integrated day care center. CARC operates a day care center for the children of their employees. They feel this is part of being a good employer. They also reserve six "slots" at any time to be used by children with handicaps and families in the family support program for a "drop-in" respite center. Nonhandicapped siblings are invited as well. For the staff and parents, the respite center has a number of positive aspects: a) it is parent-need responsive, b) it is cost-effective, c) it is integrated, d) it makes a difference, and e) it is a good environment for all the kids who come.

Parent counselor. Essentially, the family support services to an individual family are coordinated by the parent counselor, that is, a person who is herself the parent of a child with a disability who works as a counselor for the project. Most of the parents say they find it easier to communicate with another parent. A major part of what the counselor does is to check in with families as frequently as needed.

Parent support group (Share Our Support). SOS is a parent group that currently involves some forty families, although not all of them come to every meeting.

Financial support. For many families, the extra costs involved in supporting a child with a disability can be a major force for an out-of- home placement. CARC offers financial support to families who are interested in keeping their children at home. Based on financial need, families can be reimbursed for up to 100% of the costs of the disability related expenses of items ranging from adaptive equipment to diapers.

Information referral and coordination. The CARC staff provide information about educational rights of children with handicaps, referral to existing services, and coordination of the various services being used. By giving information, referral, and coordination to existing services, the project saves its own limited resources, and involves the family in more generic services in the community.

Cost information. For all the services the project offers, the budget is quite small. This year their total budget is still $113,000. Of that, some $32,000 comes from the Maryland Family Support Program. The balance is supported by the agency which is funded in part by the United Way and the county. They also receive $15,000 from the Department of Human Resources for respite services. While families do make a financial contribution toward the services they receive, based on their ability to pay, most of the families in the program have low income so they do not pay any of the costs. The same holds true for financial support. Families receive assistance in paying for diapers, medicine, and the like. The family buys the supplies, and they are reimbursed for up to 100% of the costs. At the drop-in respite program there is only a cost to the families who use the service for full- time child care.