Retreat!

When I woke up this morning around 3:30 AM I really thought I was coming down with something. I felt sniffly and seem to have some challenges in catching her breath of air through my nose IE clogged the up. But I stayed in bed till about 6:30 AM by the time I got up is feeling fairly decent totally surprised. I was about ready to cancel the whole day. Energized by the good nights sleep I surprisingly realize that did not have any one dollar bills got dressed and headed across the street to the coffee shop to buy a cup of coffee (pathetically since I am going to coffee social at 9:30 AM). So I bought a small cup of coffee cashing the $20. A dollar in the tip jar to head back to the apartments.

With some regret I canceled my appearance at bookclub this afternoon. It was the Utah Nonprofit Housing Corporation (UNPHC ) retreat. A 4 to 5 hour event started at one in the afternoon Starting with some kind of a lunch. Supposedly, lunch is to be catered but finding out that catering means summering sandwiches cut in 4 inch sections, with assorted chips and vegetables and cookies at the end. It was where I needed to be however. I've been on this board of directors for over a decade and like most boards that I currently sit on I initially became involved when I was working and that was part of my job description to work with other agencies and programs that serve to folks with disabilities. I was sort of surprised at myself at how much I was involved in this year's retreat. Usually I sit on the back row and just suffer through the event that this year I actually made comment particularly around the concept of how disability was represented in the housing and of Utah nonprofit. I am immensely thankful that the project has followed the letter of the law which states for every X amount of units built Y must be accessible and it's usually something like for every 20 units one must be accessible. I was really fortunate the place where I'm living now is accessible when I needed a place to crash. But in the course of the meeting as we went through what was offered I think we offer over 1000 apartments in the state of Utah. If my memory serves me correctly 5% would need to be accessible seems like numbers greater than that I'll have to look it up Whatever the number is we're not close to the number of accessible units and especially not wheelchair accessible units i.e. role in shower etc. It dawned on me that there are a lot of folks with disabilities, coming down the pike and I mean physical disabilities. I'm a little concerned that my organization will count mental health/DD population folks who are ambulatory and do not necessarily need accessible living scenarios. However, as the baby boomers advance forget about spinal cord injury but stroke and other neurological insults are going to happen in these folks are going to need accessible units… Unless management thinks they're going to go directly to long-term care and not be housed in the community. I hate to feel pessimistic but I think As I begin to open my eyes My organization does not understand the importance of living in the community with supports and keep in out of long-term care for those who do not wish to go into long-term care. Interesting, how do I do this? I think I need to really think about what it's going to take to bring these people around to my kind of thinking if indeed they can. Maybe they don't want to hear the truth about what's coming down to what's available and how this is going to affect everyone and maybe I have been placed here for a reason. Who the hell knows…?