Where will my adult child live when I am gone or no longer able to care for him? This is the biggest question facing parents with an autistic child.
What makes answering the question even more difficult is that, if you are dependent SSI paying for roam and board, on you cannot pick out a provider now and count on your child living there in the future. Once your child’s name comes up on the “interest list,” you are given a list of group homes with openings by your local authority (Gulf Coast Center or MHMRA of Harris County). Unless you have the resources to place your child with a private provider for the rest of his life, you can’t very easily plan ahead to secure a decent spot.
In addition, though your local authority will provide you with a list, they are not allowed to tell you which providers are good or not. If a parent experiences a problem with a group home or provider, your “local authority” (don’t you love that name?) can’t tell you about it! Complaints about HCS providers are not the sort of thing you are going to read about on Yelp or Angie’s List.
One of the motivations for this site, was to allow people to post reviews of providers; but the way the funding situation is, people are probably feeling blessed that there is a slot at all, especially after waiting years on the “interest” list.
All Group Homes, referred to by the State of Texas as ICFs for IIDs (Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with an Intellectual Disabilities) Provider Resources, whether private or public (that is, room and board are paid for with their SSI check), are required to meet certain standards established by DADS, the Department of Aging and Disability Services.
Say you have a house and want to create a group home for your adult child and three others; my understanding is that you would still have to go through DADs????
To get some of idea of the HCS providers in the Clear Lake area, you can check this list.
Private providers can be found here.