Angelo Breaks Out of His Shell with Individualized Home Supports

Angelo wasn’t always as open to interacting with others as he is today. Before he started receiving homecare services, Angelo did not like being the center of attention and often kept to himself.

“When Angelo first went to school, he wouldn’t even look at anybody. He’d hide and turn his head,” Angelo’s grandmother Barbara said. “He would walk so closely to people that he would almost trip them, and if he walked beside you, he would close the eye closest to you. In his mind, it was so he couldn’t see you noticing him.”

Angelo was born with only half of his left arm and is diagnosed with autism. As a result, he requires help with most daily tasks, such as bathing, eating, and using the bathroom.

“He is not independent. He was also a biter when he was young,” Barbara said. “His autism caused him to have aggressive behavior. He was biting, he was hitting, and he was breaking things.”

Due to a complicated family situation that left Angelo with no one to care for him, his grandparents took him in at a very young age to prevent him from entering the foster care system.

“We got him three months after he got out of the NICU, and I’ve been raising him ever since,” Barbara said. “He’s the love of my life, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”

Reaching for Relief with Accra

Angelo is 17 years old and has received Accra services for four years.

“I don’t even want to think about what it was like before Accra,” Barbara said. “For the first six or seven years, he had bad behaviors, and it was just me taking care of him. He liked to be with somebody else, and I needed somebody I could trust, and a team behind me.”

Barbara registered Angelo with Individualized Home Supports (IHS) without Training, which is part of a suite of services under Accra’s 245D Waivered Services line. IHS without Training provides support, assistance and supervision to adults or children who live in their own homes. A staff person provides direct supervision, cueing, guidance, instruction, assistance with activities of daily living, or assistance with coordinating and attending community living activities.

A caregiver comes to Angelo’s home several days a week to help care for him and bring him into the community. Angelo’s caregiver assists him with daily tasks, and she takes Angelo to do some of his favorite activities, such as mini golf and bowling.

Angelo’s caregiver cared for him even before he received Accra’s services, and she switched over to Accra when the family started their services in 2020. Having support through IHS is a considerable relief to Angelo’s grandparents, who would not otherwise have enough time to do their jobs.

“We work in our basement. His grandfather is a psychologist, and I do all of the billing. I also file and scan stuff for him,” Barbara said. “It’s hard to work and concentrate on what he is doing at the same time.”

“So without her, he would not be having the amount of fun he’s having right now. Being that I have to work, he gets to do all of the things that make him happy and when he comes back, he’s excited.”

High-Five Hero

Marbles and trains are just some of Angelo’s favorite things. He has miles of marble tracks that he loves to play with at home, and he enjoys listening to Thomas the Train on the way to school. He’s also an expert on vehicles.

“He’s got a fantastic memory,” Barbara said. “He knows his grandpa is in a wheelchair because he has MS, so he is always looking for a new wheelchair van for him. If anybody needs a car, ask Angelo. Tell him the kind you like, and he’ll find one for you.”

Since teaming up with Accra, Angelo has just begun to break out of his shell, having small interactions with others like high-fives.

“At the end of last year, he just started doing high-fives with people he knows,” Barbara said. “But other than that, he will walk away and stay by himself. He won’t go in the lunchroom without a paraprofessional, he won’t eat there either, and he doesn’t think to ask anything like, ‘Where do you live?’. He doesn’t do that. But it’s not personal, not at all.”

One time, when his caregiver took him mini-golfing, Angelo noticed a woman struggling to putt the ball in the hole.

“He couldn’t see her from where she was, but he heard her yell, ‘Why can’t I do this?’” Barbara said. “He yelled and told her what to hit the ball against, and she got it in!”

The woman screamed with excitement, and she walked around the course outside of Angelo’s view to thank him.

“She came up behind him, and he just stared at her,” Barbara said. “Then, she put her hand up to do a high-five, and he went along with it. His caregiver told me, ‘I couldn’t believe it Barb, he was so happy. And he told her where to hit the next ball.’”

“He kind of dismissed her afterward and she went on her way, but I cried because he usually doesn’t do that,” Barbara said.

Hope for the Future

While it may seem like Angelo is displeased, he is actually very happy where he is, and he can’t imagine going anywhere else once he graduates from school.

“He loves it. That’s the only school he wants to go to. He doesn’t want to graduate. When it’s time to graduate, he wants to stay there,” Barbara said. “There’s a transition program after he graduates. He said he might go, or he might quit.”

As for Barbara, she feels a great sense of gratitude for the assistance she has received from Angelo’s caregivers in the last four years.

“Everybody should go to Accra and use them,” Barbara said. “I don’t know what to say other than they have been a savior for me. I’m grateful and I’m really blessed to work with them.”