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2011

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2010

Parents struggle to house mentally handicapped...

by Cheryl Rossi, Vancouver Courier (May 5, 2010)

Parents of adult children with mental disabilities have made little progress in establishing stable housing for their kids three years after the Courier first profiled them.

The Parent Support Group for Families of Mentally Handicapped Adults Society wants donated land and money to construct the housing project they believe their children need.

Gwen Lee, president of the parents' group, said Community Living B.C. has offered the group four units in a 100-unit social housing development downtown, with support workers that would visit once or twice a week. Community Living B.C. is a Crown agency that provides support and services to people with developmental disabilities, children with special needs and their families. But the offer wouldn't work for Lee and the other families in the Parent Support Group, who say their children need around-the-clock care.

Lee, 68, has to remind her autistic and non-verbal 39-year-old son Geoffrey to clear his plates from the table, brush his teeth and change his clothes.

Sarah Fergason, 26, is developmentally delayed, has seizures and limited short-term memory, compromised balance and coordination, hypoglycemia and tinnitus, and needs a quiet environment. Her previous group home and day program didn't work out.

Fergason lives with her father... [Click to read the full story.]