August Newsletter
Building Bridges - 2008 Art Celebration & Auction
Ladies and Gentlemen, let the bidding begin…
The 2008 Building Bridges Art Celebration & Auction is October 15 at the Hilton Austin!
This is the most important fundraiser of the year for The Arc of the Capital Area, so here’s what you can do to help make this year’s event a winner:
1. Donate a piece of art for the auction. Drop off at our office, 2818 San Gabriel, or call 476-7044 and we’ll pick it up!
2. Donate something else for the silent auction, i.e. a gift certificate for a 2-week stay at your private island near Fiji, or one from your favorite Austin restaurant or Spa! Drop off at our office, 2818 San Gabriel, or call (476-7044) and we’ll pick it up!
3. Buy a table and invite 10 friends/clients to impress and entertain! $1,200.
4. Buy a ticket and come have a great time, bid on art, or just rub elbows with the crème de la crème! $100.
5. Stay home and watch CSI, but write The Arc a nice check so we can continue to provide great services to citizens with developmental disabilities! Make check payable to The Arc of the Capital Area, and mail to 2818 San Gabriel, Austin, TX 78795.
Look for your Building Bridges invitation in the mail in early September. For more information visit Building Bridges.
You cannot imagine how excited we get when we hear from you, so thank you, thank you, thank you!!
When Crisis Hits the Disabled
Limited Options for Support and Housing Exist for Aging Caregivers and Their Children
By Clare Ansberry - The Wall Street Journal Online, April 29, 2008; Page A8
Seventy-nine-year-old Anna Dromgoole arrived at the Plano Specialty Hospital a month ago with severe wounds on her legs. Her 41-year-old son, Kent, who has Downs Syndrome, was at her side. Ms. Dromgoole refused to be admitted unless Mr. Dromgoole could stay with her. She, like thousands of other aging caregivers across the country, had no place for her developmentally disabled child to go. When crisis hits, they find themselves at the mercy of strangers. In their case, the stranger was Beth Lambdin, Plano Specialty's clinical liaison, who found a semi private room for the Dromgooles, thinking they would be back home in a few weeks.
That scenario fell apart when Ms. Dromgoole went into respiratory arrest. That leaves her son, who himself has since been hospitalized, with no one other than Ms. Lambdin to turn to and nowhere to go once he is released from Plano Specialty later this week. "I'm his one constant," she says. "I'm really no one, just a stranger who met them three weeks ago."
That Ms. Lambdin, an acquaintance of less than a month, may end up housing Mr. Dromgoole speaks to her character. But it also underscores the limitations of the nation's programs to assist those with developmental disabilities, especially in emergencies, which promise to hit more often as the nation's caregivers grow increasingly frail. "We have not addressed the needs of aging caregivers," says Susan Murphree of Advocacy Inc., a federally funded protection and advocacy system for Texans with disabilities. "One of the things we don't have is help for people in crisis situations."
An estimated 2.9 million people with intellectual or developmental disabilities or some significant functional limitation live with caregivers mainly parents who are 55 years or older.
As they age beyond their caregiving capacities, as Ms. Dromgoole apparently has, their children need a formal and supported living arrangement. Unfortunately, there aren't enough of those arrangements.
About 80,000 people with developmental disabilities nationwide are on waiting lists for various services to help them live in the community. Texas, alone, has about 35,000 people waiting for home and community services, in spite of funding last year to serve additional people.
Spending for such programs continues to increase annually, although levels vary by state. It reached $2 billion last year, which represented a 10% increase, says Charlie Lakin, who researches residential programs at the University of Minnesota. "But the reality is, it's not growing enough to meet the demand."
Moreover, options may narrow further as budgetstrapped states try to hold down spending and the federal government looks for ways to control spending for Medicaid the main source of funding such programs the concern is that options will further narrow.
Mr. Dromgoole's parents divorced when he was five and he has been alone with his mother since, most recently sharing a condominium. His mother kept him close to her, taking him with her when she cleaned houses, played bingo and bowled. He took out the trash, got the mail and once had a job bagging groceries. "I help my mother plant some flowers and cut the yard," he says.
Many people in Ms. Dromgoole's generation didn't expect their children with various developmental problems to outlive them and didn't explore options for them to live on their own. In some cases, they were afraid that something bad would happen to their children without their attentive eye or they were frustrated by lack of options when they did look.
As she got older, Ms. Dromgoole had a harder time getting around. Her circulation was bad. Cuts on her legs wouldn't heal and became severe wounds. Several weeks ago, when his mother couldn't get up from the couch and he couldn't lift her, Mr. Dromgoole called 911. "She's real sick right now," he says. At that point, although she didn't realize it at the time, Ms. Lambdin became his defacto caregiver. That first week, when both mother and son were at the hospital, Ms. Lambdin tried to keep Mr. Dromgoole, a likeable outgoing man, engaged. She brought him coloring books and paints and took him to Firehouse Subs, where he ordered an oversized sandwich dubbed the "Wreck."
"He's verbal and independent. He just can't live alone," she says. "He was never taught those life skills." When his mother's condition worsened, Ms. Lambdin realized that the short-term stay she envisioned wasn't going to happen and that Mr. Dromgoole might not be able to return home.
She called every number in Ms. Dromgoole's little phone book and found one living relative a first cousin in Louisiana, herself elderly and with a disabled child. Neighbors and friends voiced concern but are likewise older.
Various social service agencies offered untenable solutions. One said Mr. Dromgoole could get emergency help if he was left at a homeless shelter. Groups that work with the developmentally disabled had an opening in a supervised residential program nine hours away in San Antonio, but nothing closer. Ms. Lambdin doesn't want to move him that far from his mother.
She called her friend, Travis Fogle, at Silverado Senior Living, a well-regarded private pay home for those with Alzheimer's and dementia. Silverado, she knew, would take people for three days in an emergency situation. Mr. Fogle extended that stay for a week and a half, at no cost. Mr. Dromgoole flourished there, putting vases with daisies and carnations on dining room tables, and helping to feed residents, who couldn't feed themselves. He went ballroom dancing, to his first hockey game and saw an Elvis impersonator. Staff trimmed his dark hair and cut his long nails, washed his clothes and his mother's, too. Mr. Dromgoole requested and received simple meals he was accustomed to - corndogs, macaroni and cheese and skillet fried potatoes and onions.
"We just wanted it to be a positive experience for him," says Mr. Fogle. It was, but it was also unsustainable. It would cost more than $80,000 a year for him to live there and Mr. Dromgoole receives only $1,200 a month in Social Security. "They did as much as they could," says Ms. Lambdin. Some Silverado families are trying to raise money for him to return.
With Mr. Dromgoole leaving Silverado, Ms. Lambdin asked Dr. John Lavery, Plano Specialty's medical director, if he could return as a patient. She had noticed swelling on Mr. Dromgoole's legs and suspected cellulites. After an examination, he was admitted. "He had a medical condition," says Dr. Lavery, declining to elaborate. Medicare is paying for his stay, although Mr. Dromgoole will be responsible for his $996 deductible. He is responding well to treatment and will likely be released in a few days.
In the meantime, he watches wrestling on TV and calls Ms. Lambdin several times a day. He asked for a birthday cake for his mother, who turned 80 Monday. Ms. Dromgoole remains on a ventilator. When Mr. Dromgoole visits her, he sings "Peaks and Valleys," kisses her on the forehead, and says, "Momma, you need to get better."
Ms. Lambdin continues to search for an appropriate local residence for Kent. If nothing materializes, she will bring Mr. Dromgoole home to live with her husband and three young daughters, ages 11, 9 and 5. The stairs on their split-level home would be hard for Kent, who weighs about 260 pounds, but not impossible.
"I've got feelers out everywhere," says Ms. Lambdin. "Unless by some miracle, someone comes in and says they have him covered, he'll come home with me."
The Arc is pleased to have entertained 24 teams at the beautiful Flintrock Falls Course in Lakeway on Thursday, May 15 for the ninth Arc of the Capital Area Golf Classic.
Everyone enjoyed a fun and relaxing day of golf with beautiful weather, great prizes and a little friendly competition, all in an effort to offer continued support to The Arc's programs and services.
This year we were excited to have the opportunity to raise money to furnish our newly acquired "Arc of the Arts" art gallery and studio. A total of $5,500 was raised in extra raffle and mulligan ticket sales to go towards purchasing furniture and supplies for the studio.
A total of $56,000 was raised at the golf tournament. We are especially grateful to our key sponsors: Austin Pathology Associates, Frost Bank, Humana and Austin's Pizza. We would also like to the thank the 24 businesses and individuals who supported The Arc with the purchase of a team, all of the players who bought additional raffle and mulligan tickets, all of our in-kind donors, and the winners of the auction item baskets, which were put together by Lindsay Spurck. Finally, thank you to all of our volunteers who donated their time for this special event. It would not have been a success without you.
Congratulations to this year's winners!
- 1st Place Team: Austin's Pizza
- 2nd Place Team: Austin Pathology Associates
- 3rd Place Team: Pat Lochrie Group
Arc of the Arts Set to Open August 6
It is no secret that The Arc of the Capital Area has been dreaming of the day when we would open the doors to our very own art studio and gallery. This would be a place of warmth and creativity, where artists with developmental disabilities have the opportunity to express themselves in a new way, learn new job and life skills, find a greater sense of purpose and come one step closer to realizing their dreams of independence. The dream is now a reality! On May 16, a lease was signed for 3,500 square feet at 6717 Burnet Road, just north of Burnet and Koenig and next door to the new location of The Frisco Shop.
We are pleased to announce classes will begin on Tuesday, August 5! Classes are open to ages 14 and up and are offered Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Students will be matched one-on-one with volunteer artists from the Austin community. They will have fun creating artwork that will be showcased in our gallery and at The Arc annual gala, "Building Bridges Art Auction and Celebration."
This project's importance goes beyond the art created. Students will learn important job and life skills. They will rotate positions in the gallery and learn better socialization skills, money management and office skills that they can use in future places of employment and as participating members of society. They will also receive a portion of the proceeds for any artwork that is sold. We are now accepting student applications. The cost of the program is $20 a day.
If you know of someone who would be interested in participating in this wonderful program, please contact Randi Knight, Director of Development and Marketing, at rknight@arcofthecapitalarea.org or 512-476-7044 to begin the application process. We are also looking for artists in the community who are interested in volunteering in this rewarding program. Please fill out a volunteer application and submit it to Adria Dawidczik, Volunteer & Special Events Coordinator via fax at 512-476-9054 or mail to: The Arc of the Capital Area, Attn: Adria Dawidczik; 2818 San Gabriel, Austin, TX 78705.
