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Community and Residential Services

The Institute first began operating in Connecticut in 1986 through its Division of Community and Residential Services that focused primarily on helping people leave large state-run institutions in Mansfield, Southbury and Waterford by creating residential alternatives that were integral parts of neighborhoods and communities. Since then the division has grown from five community residences to more than twenty, and consists of both Community Living Arrangements (CLAs) and Intermediate Care Facilities (ICFs). Our services have expanded beyond residential supports and now include:

• Community-based Employment and Vocational Programs
  Supported Living
  Clinical and Program Consultation
  Training
  Autism Support and In-Home Family Supports

We believe that respect, compassion, and commitment are the essentials upon which services for individuals must be based. We are dedicated to creating individualized treatment that capitalizes on people’s strengths, addresses their needs, targets their aspirations, and respects their unique profiles of interests and concerns.

Specialized Autism Services

In America, considerable resources and attention are devoted to educational supports for children with autism-spectrum disorders. But children grow up, and often when they leave school they and their families are confronted with the reality of few specialized services and inadequate choices for living and work arrangements while remaining at home. Because of the unique needs of people with autism, and the variety of challenges they may bring with them to the workplace and the community, those who serve them need special training in order to help them make the most of their talents and abilities. In the southern part of Connecticut IPP has begun providing supports to adults with autism who need meaningful recreation and leisure activities, social opportunities, and work-related experiences. These individualized services include:

• Life skills coaching – focusing on behavior, social interaction, using community resources such as transportation, shopping, and local libraries
• Job development and job coaching
• Food preparation and nutrition
• Case management
• Travel training
• Community mentoring –  planning for and participating in recreational outings and sporting events, fostering greater participation in civic and social organizations, providing transportation, working on targeted social skills that foster community involvement
• Educational coaching – focusing on tutorials, communication, developing natural supports within one’s community, social skills
• Behavioral consultation – working on improving individuals’ repertoires of positive behavior and reducing behaviors that act as barriers to successful inclusion in one’s community, participating in functional behavioral assessments to reveal environmental conditions that cause and maintain nonadaptive behavior.

For more information about these services, which are funded in collaboration with theConnecticut Department of Developmental Services and through private payment, please be in touch with:

Mary Pat DeCarlo, Project Director – Adult Services (888) 968-4489

Individualized In-Home Supports

Often people with special needs wish to remain close to their family and to continue living at home. They have found that they are more comfortable there, and they play a vital role in the life of their family. Yet, because of health or safety issues, assistance that may be out of the ordinary might be necessary to achieve a residential arrangement that works for all. Upon request, IPP works with these individuals and their families to provide:

• Life Skills Coaching
• Behavioral Consultation
• Recreational Services

Through the development of individualized arrangements, staff come into the home when the individual needs help to assist with a variety of activities of daily living such as scheduling appointments with health care providers, preparing a meal, cleaning, engaging in a leisure activity or working on a behavioral need. The goal of this collaboration between the individual, his or her family, and IPP is a smooth-running household with a pleasant atmosphere that supports the individual’s health and community membership.

Because In-Home Services are funded by the state of Connecticut, individuals must be funded by the Connecticut Department of Developmental Services and eligible for the federal Medicaid Waiver. For more information about this program, be in touch with:

Mary Pat DeCarlo, Project Director – Adult Services (888) 968-4489

Residential Services

Group Homes

The notion of living in small homes situated solidly within community neighborhoods is one we are all familiar with. Families are a natural organization, as are groups of people acting collaboratively. In the late 1960’s in America, many people --- children and adults --- who had been living within large, often remote institutions were assisted in moving home by advocates who pressured state governments to alter their ways of thinking. These advocates, often themselves individuals with special needs, along with their guardians, family members and friends, lobbied both the federal government and states to change the way in which funding was orchestrated. They asked society to develop smaller living settings that permitted people to come and go more freely, and depend on the kinds of natural supports (such as neighbors, visiting nurses, the YMCA, and religious organizations) that non-disabled people rely on. With the powerful help of Eunice Shriver, Hubert Humphrey and Robert Kennedy, all of whom counted a person with developmental disabilities as a beloved family member, the de-institutionalization movement became a reality. In Connecticut during the 1980’s and 1990’s, thousands of people left training schools and mental health hospitals and took up residence in towns and cities close to their birthplaces. Many, especially those with challenging behavioral disorders, looked to IPP for help.

Group homes provide active, comfortable and safe places for a small number of adults to live—typically three, four or five people, with two or three well-trained staff present to provide assistance and oversight. Individual residential solutions for each person are made possible because each resident has available an enriched daily schedule of preferred activities. Each person contributes to the home; each person receives the kinds of supports needed to be active, healthy, happy and experience growth.

• The Institute provides residential services to adults with intellectual disabilities, autism, pervasive developmental disability, physical impairments and those with dual diagnoses. All residents must be eligible for services through the Department of Developmental Services and the Medicaid Waiver (link to DDS). The Institute presently has twenty homes located primarily in the Western and Southern regions of the state. All homes are licensed by the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) and funded by DDS and the Department of Social Services. Homes range in size from two to six residents. Staffing ratios vary depending on the residents' needs. Annual Individual Plans of Service (ISPs) are developed by the interdisciplinary team consisting of developmental disability professionals, registered nurses, board certified behaviorists, psychiatrists, physical and occupational therapists, and residential and day staff.

 For more information about group home services please be in touch with:

Mary Pat DeCarlo, Project Director, Adult Services, at (888) 968-4489.

Community Training Homes

Supported Living

Sometimes people with disabilities have found a living space that is comfortable and suits them well. It may be a home or apartment that they rent or own. Upon request, The Institute works with these individuals and their family members and guardians to develop individualized staff arrangements, in which staff come into the home when the person needs help with activities of daily living such as scheduling or attending medical appointments, cooking dinner, spring and fall cleaning, or routine shopping. Often check-ins are designed to see how the past few days are going, or to plan for the weekend. Some people need support daily, and others less often. On occasion, round-the-clock specialized services are needed.

The process of choosing staff is a joint venture share among the individual, his/her family, and IPP. The interests, preferences and special needs of the person determine the criteria that are used to recruit and interview candidates. Once staff members are hired, IPP managers provide training and supervision, making sure that they are performing all of the tasks that the individual has requested. The goal of this collaboration between the individual and The Institute is a smoothly-running household with a pleasant atmosphere that supports the individual’s health and community membership.

The Department of Developmental Services and the federal Medicaid Waiver provides funding for The Institute’s Supported Living program (link to DDS), which currently serves people with developmental disabilities in the southern and western parts of Connecticut.

For more information about Supported Living, please be in touch with:

Mary Pat DeCarlo, Project Director for Adult Services, at (888) 968-4489.

Vocational Services

When people with intellectual and other kinds of developmental disabilities need vocational training and employment support in the greater Hartford and New Haven counties, they are apt to be in touch with Connecticut Career Mentors. CCM provides custom occupational services that promote competitive job placements, training, and community-based situational assessments. Individuals with all kinds of special needs –those in high school seeking transition to work settings, those who are challenged by communication barriers or learning disabilities, those with autism and related autism-spectrum disabilities - receive career assistance ranging from job interest/aptitude assessment, to job training, to job placement and coaching. CCM staff find solutions that permit people to break down many of the walls that can prevent their meaningful and productive employment.

Within CCM, RSVP (Rehab Services and Vocational Programming) uses an individualized approach to its occupational services. It takes the time to review each individual’s personal history, interests, capabilities, skills, ideas, and feedback in order to create a written document that plans the direction of employment activities and establishes appropriate goal tracking. That document then serves to guide the direction of clients in their job search, career exploration, or any career assistance that are needed. Vocational professionals continue to reference this guide during the entire process of helping individuals transition into work opportunities in order to gain customer satisfaction and promote consistency of desired services.

Currently under the guidance of The Institute, CCM has developed from 50 years of past success in meeting the career assistance needs of people with disabilities or barriers to work. Recently to meet the changing needs of workers, CCM responded by initiating a comprehensive pilot program specifically designed for the needs of individuals with autism by promoting independence, social development, therapy, and vocational opportunities. This program has been hugely successful throughout the state of Connecticut. Recently CCM has heard a different call from clientele seeking specialized assistance in independent competitive work opportunities. In responding to those, we offer a program that includes independent, competitive work experiences and opportunities. But no matter what barrier individuals may have, CCM will review the case thoroughly, listen to ideas, and provide recommendations and a guideline for a thorough vocational plan.

Vocational assistance takes many forms, and entails a broad array of specific activities. Job Developers help individuals:

• Prepare a professional resume
• Prepare for successful job seeking
• Locate job matches appropriate for an individual’s particular needs
• Assist in the training of individuals while working
• Assist with transportation needs
• Provide training in on-the-job social skills and work behavior
• Help improve work skills such as attention to detail, performance speed, and concentration
• Arrange for job accommodations

If it is a Work Evaluation or Situational Assessment that best responds to the needs of an individual, an employment site that matches interests and abilities will be located and appropriate supports will be put into place to assure that the employee can experience a meaningful job experience, learn new work skills, make contacts, and become empowered within the job market.
People supported by Community Career Mentors have been successfully employed in a wide variety of jobs throughout Connecticut, including:

“IPP has provided a great service by supplementing our workforce and adding to the atmosphere of comradery within our company… The supervisors have always conducted themselves professionally and worked well with our staff. We look forward to…smiling faces, positive attitudes and their help with our work. I only wish all our employees were as willing and eager to work as your people…”

N. Casertano, owner, Casertano Greenhouses and Farms Inc.

For help in learning more about vocational supports in Connecticut, please be in touch with Shayne O’Rourke-Testa at (888) 968-4489.