Topics: institutional care, community inclusion, home and community-based services, family relations, staffing concerns
Goal
Observe the process of closing the Hamburg State Center, specifically the experiences and expectations of the residents, families, and staff impacted by the closure.
Key Findings
- Residents and their families underwent a major culture shift into supporting community living once they were made aware of the availability of supports in the community.
- The process of deinstitutionalizing set in motion transformations in family relations, providing for renewed relationships among residents, their parents, and siblings, as well as the formation of new relationships among roommates and their family members.
- During deinstitutionalizing, individuals frequently moved between assumed identities, such as transition team members calling upon their professional beginnings as institution staff and current staff members describing themselves as the fictive family of the residents in their care.
Findings were published in a report for the Office of Developmental Programs and disseminated in a presentation (see presentation) at the 2019 AUCD Conference and poster at the 2019 AAIDD Conference.