New home creates broader horizons
Jim Hustler is an engaging 58-year-old man who has lived in Victoria since 1997, when he moved there with his parents, Bill and Mary Hustler. In 2000, friends and family came together as a “Circle of Support” for Jim. Jim’s parents take an active role in working with this circle of people to help ensure Jim’s short and long-term care needs are being met.
In 1999, Jim began living in a four person group home run by a provincial agency. He also attended a day program run by Community Living Victoria (he calls this his “work”), which was a requirement at that time from the ministry. At first, Jim was quite happy with the group home, and found the other people there compatible and the manager supportive. However, this changed over time with staff turnover, changes in the people living in the group home, and the death of his best friend who had been living at the home with Jim since 1999. By 2007, Jim was finding it extremely difficult to manage living at the home.
Jim was still happy at work, so Bill and Mary knew that the difficulties stemmed from his living situation. They had always dreamed that Jim would live with a family, so they took the required steps to develop a plan with CLBC and Community Living Victoria (CLV) to find a safe place for Jim to live. At that time, resources were not available so they were placed on the request for service list.
In 2009, CLBC developed host agencies to help connect people with safe housing options. Bill and Mary approached CLV, a newly appointed host agency, to redevelop their plan using CLBC’s new guidelines. Once the plan and funding were approved, CLV put his family in touch with people who were qualified to provide home sharing support. Through this process, Jim and his parents met Kim and Carl Bergenstein and a good match emerged. Over the next several months, Jim visited the Bergensteins and their two teenage daughters so they could get to know each other.
“The first night Jim visited the Bergensteins he wanted to stay,” says Mary. “We knew then we had chosen well.”
Jim has now been living with the Bergensteins for a year. Kim has a background in respite and is Jim’s main caregiver. Kim and Carl’s friends and family welcomed Jim enthusiastically and now he counts them as his own friends also. Through these new relationships, Jim is now experiencing many new activities and social experiences. For example, Jim and the Bergensteins spent several weeks this summer camping on a local beach where Jim got to know their neighbours who own a local French restaurant. The relationship has continued beyond the campground, and Jim’s new friends cooked him a six-course French meal to celebrate his recent birthday. Jim recently joined the Bergensteins on a trip to Edmonton to visit family, who were delighted to get to know him. Jim is getting to be known at the local shops, and is often greeted with a “hi”. He also has taken on responsibility for answering the cell phone when he and Kim are driving, and for setting the table for meals. Kim and Carl are also now valued members of Jim’s “Circle of Support”.
“It is a lot of fun to watch Jim grow, change and expand and become more socially independent,” says Kim.
“Everything has changed for the positive since Jim moved to the Bergenstein’s,” says Mary. “Jim has turned into the person he can be, and has expanded into the world with grace and delight.”
“We’ve gained new family members through this placement,” says Bill. “It’s been positive for our family and for Jim. We’ve all enjoyed inter-family parties with Jim as decorator.”
For Bill and Mary, Jim’s home is the realization of a long-term dream for their son, but they recognize other families may have concerns about safety and about the possibility that home sharing situations may change over time. Though they previously shared the concerns about safety, Bill and Mary feel now that CLBC has the appropriate policies and procedures in place to help safeguard their son, such as making sure agencies match caregiver skills to needs through rigorous interviews with the individuals, families and home sharing providers.
“Families need to be brave and accept a new way of having their son or daughter supported,” says Mary. “They also have to accept that change happens and there is the possibility that another home share may need to be found in the future. But if this happens, families will be building on a foundation of their son or daughter’s home sharing experience, and on their own experience in finding a placement.”
