Through collaborations with trusted community partners, our Family Support Center is organizing a variety of virtual events. that touch on health, wellness and performing arts. The events are open to the community and we encourage everyone to join. In addition to virtual events, our family support specialists are rounding up activities that you can take advantage of at home — click here to read more.
Our Day Habilitation and Clinical teams are also organizing events that are open to those in the Day Program and Family Support service portfolio. Our goal is to support you and your loved ones as best we can through this Coronavirus outbreak.
“Eileen Lee, a service coordinator for the LifeLinks Class Family Support Center in Massachusetts, an affiliated chapter of The Arc, has had similar struggles with her 32-year-old son Michael, who has a severely compromised immune system and an intellectual disability. Michael is now homebound with Eileen, 65, and her 71-year-old husband; Michael’s usual routine — the day program that allows him to work at a company where he inventories and refurbishes old electronics; the volunteer outings at local fire stations — has been halted for the foreseeable future.
“Everything has come to a stop. There is just no place for him to go,” Eileen said. It’s not even safe for Michael to go to Tufts Medical Center, where he receives weekly infusions to support his immune system. Now, a nurse will come to their home, Eileen said, and she worries about even that level of exposure.
“We are taking this so seriously, because if this disease goes to Michael’s lungs —” she paused. “He’s a goner. There’s no getting around it, and it’s so frightening.”
In the midst of the deepening crisis, and reports that overwhelmed hospitals may ultimately be forced to ration care — potentially prioritizing patients who are deemed most likely to survive — parents like Eileen and Lisa are left to consider what that might mean for their children.”
