Young adults living with an intellectual disability | Opening of a “Smart Home”: “A great day for our little kings”

“It’s every parent’s dream of a different child. »

Dorea Atif can’t believe her luck.

Her daughter Claudine, who lives with a moderate intellectual disability, goes to share accommodation with young people her age.

The 29-year-old will soon be moving into a very special home – the very first of its kind in Canada.

This “smart house” located in the Côte-des-Neiges district of Montreal will accommodate eight young people with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities, associated disorders and autism.

Like all parents of disabled children, M^me Atif wondered for a long time where his daughter would be “placed” when she could no longer take care of her.

“It’s a great day for our little kings and our little queens,” said, both emotional and proud, Vânia Aguiar, ideater of the project and president of the Little Kings Foundation, at the inauguration of the smart home. , Monday, in Montreal. Many elected officials from the three levels of government as well as representatives of businesses and foundations that financed the project were present for the occasion.

A mother’s determination

This project almost never saw the light of day, as told The Press a little over a year ago¹.

Except that Vânia, herself the mother of a “little king”, Henri-Louis, 28, never gives up.

From a project initially estimated at $3 million, it increased to $6.7 million; sums that the former international model managed to amass by persuading elected officials from the three levels of government as well as nearly thirty private companies and foundations to loosen their purse strings.

Proof of his tenacity: “everyone in the National Assembly knows M^me Aguiar,” joked the Minister responsible for Housing in Quebec, France-Élaine Duranceau, present at the press conference on Monday.

Then, the minister’s eyes became moist, along with those of many people in the room: “never underestimate the determination of a mother.”

The Minister of Housing as well as her colleague delegate for Social Services, Lionel Carmant, would like to see this model of adapted accommodation be reproduced elsewhere in Quebec.

Because the need for adapted accommodation is glaring. In Quebec, currently, there are 2,215 adults living with an intellectual disability, a physical disability or an autism spectrum disorder who are waiting for a place in adapted accommodation, according to figures from the ministry of Health and Social Services.

The Press revealed in recent months the story of a young adult living with an intellectual disability housed in a psychiatric hospital, for lack of anything better². As well as that of homes for adults with intellectual disabilities which threaten to close due to lack of adequate funding³.

“There are children who can be on the waiting list for 20 years while their parents get older,” explained M.^me Aguiar, determined to continue her fight for families of disabled children.

Minister Lionel Carmant recalled that there had been a tendency in Quebec, in the past, to “send to institutions” people living with a moderate to severe deficiency. As Minister responsible for Social Services, but also “as a neurologist”, he said he was very interested in the “smart home” model.

M^me Duranceau praised this project financed through a public-private partnership which did not “fit into existing programs”. It took a “decree” to release the $2 million from the Quebec government, she explained.

“It’s with a vision like this that we move things forward,” added his colleague at Social Services.

In the eyes of Benoit Dorais, responsible for housing on the executive committee of Mayor Valérie Plante, when there is “enough political will”, we manage to find the financing necessary for a real estate project which “does not fit into the small boxes”.

“Living laboratory”

In 2017, Vânia Aguiar began working on the idea of ​​the smart home with researcher in the psychoeducation department of the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières Dany Lussier-Desrochers. With his research team, he developed a plan so that young people could live in a connected home that offers technology aimed at stimulating them, while making their daily lives easier. Now that the house has become a reality, it will serve as a “living laboratory”.

The house is equipped with smart mirrors and state-of-the-art learning screens that explain to young people the steps to get dressed or brush their teeth, make a recipe or even wash their clothes, for example. There is also a multisensory room which can awaken their senses, offer them a feeling of calm and promote concentration.

The house will also be “connected” with the various clinical stakeholders, with families and with the community thanks to other technological tools. Young adults will be able to participate in a ton of workshops (gardening, cooking, dance therapy with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, boxing, etc.) in addition to volunteering in the neighborhood, such as at the Montreal Geriatrics Institute.

Claudine and her future roommates, including Henri-Louis, will move there in the coming weeks.

“Have you seen how beautiful the house is?” Bright? », asks M^me Atif, Claudine’s mother, The Press in the tone of someone who has just won the lottery.

Since the birth of her disabled daughter, the mother has been told: “Madam, there is a waiting list for that”.

“We did everything we could without anyone’s help,” she summarizes.

On the eve of moving into “her house”, Claudine told her, confidently: “Mom, it’s going to work”.

Seeing your disabled child aspire to independence like other girls her age is even better than winning the lottery, in fact.

1. Read the text “The ex-model who fights for her “little kings””

2. Read the text “Cased “in hell” in the psychiatric hospital”

3. Read the file “Would we need a star?” »