Life care or life-long residential care has been designed for people above the age of 20 years, who cannot be taken care of by parents or guardians at home.
These beneficiaries are provided with every facility for living comfortably in a group; with nutritious food, medical care, living and hygiene care, in addition to the training and sheltered workshop activities, keeping them occupied, along with the day care trainees.
Presently, there are 25 beneficiaries. Parents of few present day-care students have booked for life care, when they are unable to manage their wards at home.
Cases are also coming from other people, through references from other NGOs /parents /well-wishers.
Details of each beneficiary are maintained in a register for any kind of information required by the management, doctors or parents.
Planning the diet for the beneficiaries is also an important aspect, which is done in consultation with a professional dietician, who prescribes, taking into consideration the physical / medical conditions of these members.
Care Givers are one of the strongest support systems and vital clog in the wheel for running Life Care. These caregivers are specially trained to take care of their specific / total care. They provide assistance in regular hygiene requirements, medical needs, etc.. Matron, along with the support of the Social worker, counsellor and special educator, interacts with parents or guardians and help with emotional needs, fully understanding the mood / requirement of the beneficiaries. Stress is also a huge factor in the parents of a special needs person and the staff members help them also with occasional meetings, discussions and counselling.
These care givers get very attached to these beneficiaries, who also are very fond of them. Morning till evening they take turns to be with them, taking care of every need. They also tidy their rooms, beds, clothes etc. to keep their surroundings clean, when the youngsters are in their day care classes.
In addition, since they are in the centre 24 hours of the day, the Team also helps in the general day-to-day running of the Foundation.
The young beneficiaries with no physical disabilities are trained in house-keeping, so that they can help in keeping their clothes tidy, living place clean, help others who are dependant, etc., thus they too remain occupied after the day care activities ( 4pm to 8 pm..) and live like a family in a house.
It has been a different situation now in the pandemic, when they could not go home or even meet their parents often. Being only with the life care staff, when our day care students and teachers could not go to office, was very difficult for them. More so for the 24/7 staff, whose movements outside was also restricted and had to put up with these youngsters all the time.
Then, the online training was designed, once we realised that the pandemic situation would continue for a longer time. These youngsters too learned to use the computers with wifi and speakers, to communicate with their teachers, soon found it interesting and looked forward to these classes !!