DUŠAN Life in the Community reality to persons with complex needs

DUŠAN

Life in the Communityreality to persons

withcomplex needs

“At the end of the hallway  facing the door stood a man bent down to the floor, his face expressionless, with a diaper for incontinence and torn T-shirt. He is blind,deaf, mute and autistic.

– He immediately takes his clothes off, tears them in strips and hangs them around his hands. See! – said the caretaker at the men's department of the severe mental retardation institution Stančić, showing rolls of fabric around the young man's wrist

– It is the only fabric that he can bare on himself, he added, as the young man retreated to the bed in his tiny room.”

http://www.vecernji.hr/hrvatska/nasa-bolesna-djeca-drugdje-nece-prezivjeti-ne-selite-ih-iz-stancica-490101Published: 22.12.2012

• Intellectual disability, blind, deaf, mute, has difficulties moving

• Does not communicate• Placed in an institution when he was

around 9 years old• No contact with the family in the past 4

years

Life in an institution - 30 years

• Failed attempts on inclusion in the rehabilitation treatment within the institution

• Totally dependent on others• Functions at the level of a 6-month-old child• For his safety and the safety of others sleeps

and spends most of the time in an isolation cell

• Tears and takes off clothes• Sometimes aggressive, noncompliant• Yells• Rarely interacts with others• Sleeps with a blanket over his head• Tears and throws everything away• Likes to be out in the sun• Loves showering

Life in the community - 10 months

In late May 2014, after 30 years of living in an institution, Dušan moved into an apartment.

Organised housing program

• Custom ground floor apartment in a family house

• 1 roomate

• 24/7 support provided by an assistant in the

apartment

• Personal assistant 8 hours a day

• Occupational Therapist / Advocate

• Person centered active support methodology

Apartment in a family house

Support in the apartment

The encounter with the therapeutic dog

Walk around the city

Funicular ride

Having coffee

Sljeme - walk down the path for the visually impaired

Bundek

Jarun

Horseback riding with Mr. Došlić

Dušan today...

• Expanding his experiences on a daily basis

• Shows progress in motor skills

• We recognize the beginnings of communication

• Walking short distances around the neighborhood (instead of using a wheelchair)

• Increased involment in activities

• Minimum of undesirable behaviors

WITH ADEQUATE SUPPORT

COMMUNITY ENRICHES

LIFE OF EVERY PERSON