The purpose of Community Living

The purpose of Community Living at the Foothills AIM Society can be defined by its very title, Community Living. This service area was developed to support, advocate, assist, locate, and secure homes in the community for the individuals that we support. We support people in finding residential care, and respite care.

Residential Care

The term residential care is quite broad in that there are many qualifiers which determine what residential living is. At AIM we support people in four different types of residential settings.

1. Supported Family
The supported family has no relation to the individual with the disability, but welcomes them into their home as a part of their own family. This type of environment is for a person who may require more supports, medical, physical or emotional. The family serves as a primary care provider to the individual they are supporting. Usually this type of residential placement is full time in that it is the persons primary residence. They may have respite care during the week or on the weekends (respite to be defined below). The Supported Family is responsible for meeting the care needs of the individual, offer opportunities to develop social, recreational and life skills and maintain or enhance the quality of life for the individual.

2. Supported Roommate
A supported roommate is a person who serves the role of a roommate just as in any other roommate situation except they are also there to support the individual with the disability. This model is designed for people who choose not to live within a family type of environment. The roommates share costs equally and the place of residence is usually a neutral location in that the household items, furniture, etcetera do not belong to just one person. The supported roommate is responsible for meeting the care needs of the individual, offer opportunities to develop social, recreational and life skills and maintain or enhance the quality of life for the individual.

3. Independent and Semi-independent living
We support people to live independently in the community as well as semi-independently. When someone lives independently they live on their own without a roommate or care provider. Someone who live semi-independently is a person who lives on their own but receives some support to be able to maintain their independence. The support they may receive may include a couple of hours a week of helping to budget or bank, grocery shop or meal plan. The person is assigned an outreach worker and they work together to achieve their goals of living in the community.

The last area that Community living supports is Respite Care. Respite care is a service whose main function is to support the individual with the disability, their parent, family, or primary caregiver for a specific period of time while facilitating a positive and rewarding experience for the person in care. Respite gives the primary care provider and the person in care a break or rest from each other.

Specifically respite aims to:

• meet the care need of the individuals,

• offer the individual in care opportunities to develop social, recreational and life skills

• strengthen the relationship between care provider and the individual with a break by reducing stress and thereby improving long-term functioning

• maintain or enhance the quality of life for the care providers and individual with the disability.

Each respite program is designed around the specific needs of the individual requiring the care. Respite may take place two weekends a month, a couple of hours during the week, one week a month, it is really up to the individual. Respite is not designed to take the place of a full time residence it is to be short term and scheduled times.

The funding for community living placements is approved trough Persons with Developmental Disabilities, Calgary Region (PDD). A large number of the people we support residentially are included in our contracted dollars that we receive from PDD. However any new person applying for residential funding will be assisted by the Individualized Funding Program (IFP). Based on an individuals need and a request from the individual, family, guardian or care provider we make application for IFP funding. (Please call or email for addition information).

Now that you have been exposed to all of the different types of residential placements that we have to offer we hope that you are better informed about Community Living with the Foothills AIM Society.

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What I do

As the Manager of Community Living it is my responsibility to make sure that the programs as stated above are running smoothly. I am responsible for the co-ordination training, care and support to clients in residential and respite programs.

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A little about myself

I have been employed with the AIM Society since 2001. I started as a casual job coach and then was hired full time. I started a job in the Outreach Department in 2004 until March of 2005 when I was given the opportunity as Community Living Manager. I have also worked in the social recreation department and provided occasional respite to clients.

My educational experiences include Bachelor of Community Studies and a Certificate in Social Services both of which I took at The University College of Cape Breton. I attended university of Calgary in the 3rd year Bachelor of Social work program but have since decided to put that degree on hold. Since U of C, I have taken numerous workshops and courses pertaining to supports for individuals with developmental disabilities.

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Current Projects

The community living department has recently went through physical changes to our structure. We now have an office in Okotoks where my colleague Bev Nadeau, now manages all residential situations in the Okotoks, Black Diamond and Turner Valley area. We have 1 Fulltime Outreach worker in High River and 1 in Okotoks. We also have one part time worker who splits her time between the two offices.

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Wish List

If I were to have one wish for the Community Living Program it would be to maintain the best care providers possible so that we can continue to provide the best residential care possible and improve quality of life for those that we support. If you are interested in being a residential or respite care provider please fill in and submit our online application.