In a Brooklyn Park neighborhood there is an innocuous house just like all the rest. This easy to miss house is a group home where residents with disabilities have lived together with in-home care for up to 30 years.
Living Well Disability Services owns and operates 37 homes for residents with intellectual, developmental and physical disabilities in the Twin Cities metro area. Some cities with Living Well homes include, but are not limited to, Brooklyn Center, Burnsville, Crystal, Eagan, Edina, Golden Valley, Lakeville, Little Canada, Maple Grove, Plymouth, Robbinsdale, Saint Paul and others.
“We provide exceptional person-centered care aligned with specifically designed individual care plans,” Living Well’s Communications and Events Director Heather Heier said. “Our highly trained staff provide safety, structure and a life filled with laughter, joy and purpose. For many of the people we support, the complexities surrounding their daily care needs are too intensive for their loved ones or other providers. Therefore, a place at Living Well may be their only choice for long-term care. It is our mission to provide these exceptional services which create fulfilling lives the people we serve so richly deserve.”
The homes themselves are outfitted with safety measures for people with disabilities, such as gates and railings at the top of the stairs, handrails in the hallways, a nurse’s office and remodeled bathrooms with specially designed walk-in showers and standing tubs that make the process of hygiene easier on the residents and the assisting staff members. The company provides a “fleet” of registered nurses to prescribe meds to the residents and provide some medical care. Staff member Kipp Matthews said residents are allowed to refuse any medical care.
Each house is unique to the needs of its residents, so some houses that support people who need full-on hands-on care are equipped with more tools, such as pulley systems for the bathroom.
Shedding institutional behaviors
Despite the house having these recognizable differences compared to a standard home, Living Well aims to create a comfortable, safe home environment for its residents. This is in part due to the organization’s “person-centered” approach with residents and staff members.
Matthews repeatedly referred to the Brooklyn Park house as his second home and the residents of the house as his second family.
“Sometimes people do come with lots of maladaptive behaviors, especially if they spend time in institutions in their early lives,” Matthews said. “I have watched people here adapt and learn more positive behaviors and replace those negative behaviors and really grow in that way.”
Matthews said Living Well gives people a chance to be people, as opposed to being treated like anything less.
Staff members will cook three meals a day for the residents, and a nutritionist to make sure staff members stay in the lanes of residents’ nutritional needs. Living Well offers a volunteer program called the Meal Master’s Program. Volunteers spend an hour preparing freezer meals for the 37 Living Well houses.
Staff members will also assist with hygiene, exercise, doctor’s appointments and everyday activities. Though staff members are typically present, residents of Living Well homes are offered the freedom afforded to adult individuals.
“We believe that everyone deserves a home filled with love and companionship,” Heier said. “Many of the people in our care spend years with us because of the level of comfort and service provided. Guardians and families know that people thrive when supported and truly seen.”
Residents will often take trips outdoors, to local stores and parks, and recreational activities such as bowling. Adults over the age of 21 are allowed alcohol if they want a drink.
“We don’t just spend time out back in the yard,” Matthews said. “We do our best to get people out in the community doing things that they want to do, not just the things they need to do like errands and doctor’s appointments. Movies, bowling, carnivals, all of that. (We) really just try and live as seamlessly integrated and normally into the community as possible.”
Heier contrasted this to historical institutions for people with disabilities, saying, “Many people who lived in institutions never left the property. That is a stunning dereliction of service to humanity.”
Heier continued, saying, “Since the dawn of man, disabled people were marginalized and ridiculed and believed to be unworthy. And so it’ll take as many years to get people to fully understand the change in that narrative. But we’re getting there, bit by bit by bit, and we’re starting to see that.”
Contrary to popular stereotypes of dour medical facilities, Living Well includes its residents in creating the home by allowing each individual to personalize their room, down to the paint color on the walls. The home also offers potential rooms for sensory rooms for residents to listen to music or do aromatherapy.
“It’s so great because if people want to do movies, someone might like horror films and someone might like a lot of romance films or something,” Heier said. “Everybody’s got their own unique tastes and personalities.”
The staff said this is not a job that can have an empty shift. Living Well employees often help support one another by taking on shifts when someone can’t make it in or making something work so that someone is always in the house with the residents. Sometimes, as staff member Oluwakemi Abiodun explained, during snowstorms or illness outbreaks, staffers will often have to stay in the houses for long periods of time.
“I remember when COVID hit, full-fledged, I was working at a home overnight, and I had COVID, the residents had COVID,” Aboiodun said. “I had to stay on site. We worked for 36 straight hours.”
Aboiodun continued, saying, “Last year when we had all that snow, there were a couple of times where houses were stranded and people couldn’t get there to work. So the manager, whoever was working, would have to put up a makeshift bed because you’re going to be there overnight. You’re going to have to make this work.”
With this dedication from staff comes a close relationship with the residents. After a few weeks on the job, Heier said, relationships begin to form. Many of the residents are nonverbal. Because of this, residents communicate with their eyes and motions gestures.
“Everybody around here kind of speaks their own language,” Matthews said. “I’m fluent in five different people … Nobody here is trapped in a shell, that’s for sure.”
By the numbers
According to Heier, Living Well is 96% funded by Medicaid resources, while the rest comes from fundraising. The organization reported that 80% of staff members are women and over 50% are people of color.
Each house typically holds up to 4-6 beds. In the Brooklyn Park home, the oldest resident is 78 years old with the youngest at 54. Some houses have residents as young as 19 years old. At around 21 years old, Heier said, parents will often begin to determine the next steps for their child. This usually coincides with the conclusion of that person’s individual education plan, or IEP, which supports an individual with a disability through school until the age of 21.
“Around 21 is when families will start to have these decisions,” Heier said. “Can we care for this child in our home? Some people do. We have some people in our homes that they might have been cared for at (their parent’s home) into their 40s.”
Currently, Living Well offers services to 300 people in the Twin Cities areas. Though the organization has 500 staff members and over 500 volunteers.
Beyond the numbers
Despite staffing numbers, Heier said they are always in need of more help. Living Well staff recently went to the Minnesota State Capitol for Disability Services Day at the Capitol. The rally is meant to advocate for people with disabilities and their support systems. Heier said Living Well crammed themselves into Sen. Susan Pha (DFL-Brooklyn Park)’s office in support of Living Well’s staff.
“I wish we could pay them three times what they’re making right now,” Heier said. “It’s just so critically important to the fabric of society that these homes remain funded, and not even remain funded, but are funded at a higher rate.”
Living Well Disability Services was started by parents, volunteers and community members in 1972. According to Living Well, the organization’s founder saw a need for longer-term care for people with disabilities.
“It’s just so important for families and guardians to know that their people are cared for by people who are going to do the work,” Heier said.
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