Why a House-home?

Children with serious handicaps need to be permanently assisted by their families, as they cannot perform any or hardly any of the basic activities of daily life (BADL).  This degree of dependence that they suffer never improves.  As they grow, their care at home becomes steadily more difficult, forcing a major economic expense for technical support as well as for hiring qualified help.  However, the family with severely disabled children usually receive little or inadequate public aid, given that the financing of these needs comes almost exclusively from the family’s own resources.

Aware of this serious problem, the Lucas Koch Foundation offers an alternative:  the House-home. A place that combines professional assistance with warm, humane treatment where respect for the dignity of the individual comes first.

What is a House-home?

This is a Home inspired by the model from the Netherlands for children with varying degrees of disability, a system that has been functioning there with great success since 1997.

Our House-home will be a living space shared by several children with severe handicaps, who will live in individual rooms and will share common areas adapted to the children’s needs.  Care will be provided by qualified personnel in addition to family members, who will participate actively in the functioning of the house-home.  In this way the family atmosphere will be preserved and the enormous cost of the furnishings (special bathtubs, lifts, etc.) and professional help will be shared.

This model of cohabitation enables families to decide freely how to manage the functioning of the House-home.

How is it financed?

The model for financing will be a combination of:

• Private funding (foundations)
• Private contributions from the families themselves
• Public funding

Who is it directed towards?

The primary focus is for children and young people with very serious disabilities.

Our House-home hopes to pioneer, inspire, and encourage other families with handicapped children.  For this aim, we will prepare a manual available to any group or organization interested.

To know more about this project, contact:

info@fundacionlucaskoch.org

To learn more about the model in the Netherlands, contact: www.landelijksteunpuntwonen.nl

BADL (Basic activities of Daily Life)

To wash up, take care of the body and its parts, personal hygiene related to urination and defecation, personal hygiene related to menstruation; personal care in dressing and undressing; eating and drinking; health matters, such as following medical prescriptions, avoiding dangers; acquiring goods and services; meal preparation; house cleaning; maintaining and changing body postures; movement within the house-home; transport to places outside the house-home; intentional use of the senses (looking and listening); undertaking simple tasks.

Serious Handicaps Class V (75%)

a) The disease or disorder has extreme repercussions on the individual, reflected in the incapacity for self-care or undertaking basic activities of daily life.  This requires the constant help of other persons.

b) There is no possibility for the patient to work, even in supervised centres.

c) The presence of some of the following symptoms: