Life Planning For Adults With Developmental Disabilities

A Comprehensive Guide for Parents and Caregivers As any parent or caregiver of an individual with developmental disabilities can tell you, planning for the future of an adult with intellectual disabilities, Cerebral Palsy, severe autism, or another such condition requires hard work and good advice. While complete independence and self-reliance is out of reach for many adults with developmental disabilities, a productive, stable, and enjoyable life is certainly possible. But government and private support for parents and disabled individualsis scattered and difficult to negotiate. This book is a comprehensive guide to resources you can use to help an adult child or other individual with developmental disabilities for whom you care. The book begins by assessing the quality of life of the adult with a disability. It offers a wealth of suggestions for making that person's life even better. The book then focuses on long-term planning for the individual with a disability and helps answer the question, Who will take care of my child after I'm gone? Learn effective ways to: Assess a disabled individual's strengths and need for support services Develop a plan to for building a busy and productive life Locate good housing and employment opportunities Gather a supportive team of caregivers Advocate for a disabled individual with community agencies

The purpose of special needs planning is to create the best possible life for an adult with a disability. This book provides comprehensive guidance on creating a life plan to transition a special needs child to independence or to ensure they are well cared for in the future. Beginning with a vision of a meaningful life for the child, Hal Wright explains how to form a practical plan to reach these goals, how to mentor personal empowerment and task skills, and how to create circles of support to sustain a life plan. He next looks at employment and residential options, and government programs available in the United States. Finally he talks the reader through important financial and legal considerations, including how to fund and manage a special needs trust. This book will be essential reading for all parents or guardians of a child with a cognitive, mental or physical impairment. It will also be of interest to attorneys, financial planners, insurance agents, trust officers and other professionals looking to better serve the special needs community.

Assesses the needs and lives of the first generation of people with developmental disabilities who have survived into later life. Describes the challenges facing practitioners in gerontology and developmental disabilities to modify programs designed for mid-life adults, and notes that senior services will need to incorporate the needs of the new po

This book on end of life examines how to include people with intellectual and developmental disability in the inevitability of dying and death. Comprising 17 chapters, it addresses challenging and under-researched topics including suicide, do-not-resuscitate, advance care planning, death doulas and accessible funerals. Topics reflect everyday community, palliative care, hospice and disability services. The book proposes that the rights of people with disabilities should be supported up to and after their death. Going beyond problem identification, the chapters offer positive, evidence-supported responses that translate research to practice, together with practice examples and resources grounded in lived experience. The book is applicable to readers from the disability field, and mainstream health professionals who assist people with disability in emergency care, palliative care or end-of-life planning

Aging and Developmental Disability: Current Research, Programming, and Practice Implications explores research findings and their implications for practice in relation to normative and disability-related aging experiences and issues. This valuable book discusses the effectiveness of specific interventions targeted toward aging adults with developmental disabilities such as Down's Syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, and epilepsy, and offers suggestions for practice and future research in this area.

The Handbook of Social Work in Health and Aging is the first reference to combine the fields of health care, aging, and social work in a single, authoritative volume. These areas are too often treated as discrete entities, while the reality is that all social workers deal with issues in health and aging on a daily basis, regardless of practice specialization. As the baby boomers age, the impact on practice in health and aging will be dramatic, and social workers need more specialized knowledge about aging, health care, and the resources available to best serve older adults and their families. The volume's 102 original chapters and 13 overviews, written by the most experienced and prominent gerontological health care scholars in the United States and across the world, provide social work practitioners and educators with up-to-date knowledge of evidence-based practice guidelines for effectively assessing and treating older adults and their families; new models for intervention in both community-based practice and institutional care; and knowledge of significant policy and research issues in health and aging. A truly monumental resource, this handbook represents the best research on health and aging available to social workers today.

This handbook examines the wide-ranging applications of positive psychology in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities. It discusses the change in perceptions of disability and the shifting use of traditional deficit-based treatments. It presents evidence-based approaches and strategies that promote individuals’ strengths and capacities and as well as provide supports and services to enhance quality of life. Chapters address medical and psychological aspects in intellectual and developmental disabilities, such as mindfulness, motivation, physical well-being, and self-regulation. The book also discusses uses of assessment practices in evaluating interventions and client outcomes. In addition, it explores ways practitioners, with positive psychology, can focus on what a person is capable of achieving, thereby leading to more effective approaches to care and treatment. Topics featured in the Handbook include: Translating the quality of life concept into practice. The Casual Agency Theory and its implications for understanding self-determination. The Mindfulness-Based Individualized Support Plan (MBISP) and its use in providing support to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The unique role that friendship plays to people’s lives and social well-being. Supported Decision-Making (SDM) as an alternative to guardianship. A positive psychology approach to aging and retirement. The Handbook of Positive Psychology in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians and related professionals in clinical child and school psychology, behavioral therapy, social work, applied behavioral analysis, recreational therapy, occupational therapy, education, speech and language pathology, psychiatry, clinical medicine, and nursing.

The SAGE Reference Series on Disability is a cross-disciplinary and issues-based series incorporating links from varied fields that make up Disability Studies. This volume tackles issues relating to disability through the life course.