Successful transitions for people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities.

Robbie is a 24-year old living in Albemarle, North Carolina at Carolina Farms. He has his own bedroom, a roommate, an active social life, and he helps around the farm by working in a garden and feeding the animals. He has his own computer, DVD player, Wii, and every week he gets to enjoy social outings with other individuals living at Carolina Farms. They go to the movies, roller skate, dance, and out to eat at local restaurants. With the amount of independence and level of flexibility over his schedule, one would never guess that Robbie lives in a community built for individuals with autism. Carolina Farms is a facility that allows individuals with autism to live and work independently on a beautiful farm. However, Robbie did not always have the opportunity of living at Carolina Farms. This is actually the third residential facility that he’s been in over the past six years. During his first stays at residential facilities, he had five and six roommates living under one roof. Unfortunately, having so many roommates aggravated Robbie’s aggressive behavior. Living in the group homes, he would have four or five episodes a day, but now at Carolina Farms, he has not experienced an episode in two years. Transitioning Robbie out of his group home, which was operated by a nonprofit organization providing residential and day care services for individuals with autism, required countless hours and a number of case managers. Moving Robbie involved the nonprofit residential center communicating with the Murdoch Center (an intermediate care facility that is one of North Carolina’s four state-run developmental centers) and the apartment supervised program at Carolina Farms. It took almost a year for the Murdoch Center to work with the Local Management Entity (LME) to get Robbie transferred over to Carolina Farms. Robbie’s mother now says, “I’m proud of this transition. It was not easy to do and it took a lot time and cooperation between the LME, the Murdoch Center, the local residential nonprofit, and Carolina Farms—but it has been worth it. I knew he needed to be in a smaller group home at some point; Carolina Farms was a good opportunity. For any parent who has a child with a disability, start planning for their adulthood as early as possible. Things surprise you, and you turn around and your child is 14, then 18. I think it’s important for children to grow up and live in a different community than their parents.”