Individuals with Autism require consistent, quality training and structured environment for learning and mastering the living skills. In accordance with this, by 2017 June, we along with supportive parents, started a group home for young adults with Autism, where at present twelve young men are living together, with support and training. Since group home is the most successful model for the transition from living in their home to the residential home, we went for that. It’s hard to be person-centred when you have large groups of people. Here, the young adults are learning the necessary living skills and run the home with support. In the group home the residential services are available for five and half days a week. By Saturday afternoon all the young adults leave for their home and will be back to the group home by Monday morning.
In our August 2021 Parent meeting, we have discussed in detail regarding the possibilities of having a proper residential, Adult independent living facility for our young adults with Autism. We are all aware that it is going to be a herculean task, since there is no such existing facility in our state of Tamil Nadu. Just to compare, right now in United States, 80,000 autistic adults are on waiting lists for residential placements that can be up to 10 years long, and the non-profit advocacy organization Autism Speaks estimates that half a million autistic children will transition to the adults, in next few years. This is the condition, in a country where there are several support initiatives for young adults in the spectrum.
The critical shortage of services for adults with autism is a daily hardship for many families in India who struggle to provide a meaningful and productive life for their loved one who has aged-out of school. There is now a national crisis in services for adults with developmental disabilities, especially residential services, especially for those with autism.
In this current situation, we have planned to take this mission forward of having a proper residential facility for our young adults with special needs, close to city of Chennai, Tamilnadu, India. What we envision is a supervised living (Semi-independent living) for maximum 20 individuals in the spectrum in a residential learning and living model. From there they will be attending their learning/vocational programs, designed for them, in the day time. They will have access to medical, para-medical, behavioural and physical education support.
Along with this, we are very actively involved in studying many successful models across the globe for which we look forward for a discussion from policy to planning and execution.