The SEA programs help people live independently

  • By Jennifer R. Demuth
  • November 24, 2010
  • 296
                        
Within virtually every community there are children and adults who fall through the cracks. They are the people who have mental, physical and/or emotional disabilities that are not severe enough to qualify them for help from specialized agencies. Still, their disabilities are challenging, and many of these individuals cannot live independently without a little extra training. Thankfully, in Holmes, Tuscarawas and surrounding counties, help is available from the nonprofit Society for Equal Access Independent Living Center, Inc. (SEA), an agency that assures no one falls through the cracks. “We take care of a lot of people who fall through the cracks,” explained Dianne Renicker, SEA executive director. “They need some extra help with just the basic everyday living tasks that most of us take for granted. SEA fills in the gap of services for people who don’t qualify for services with other agencies. All of our services are free to the consumer (except transportation). We try to eliminate all barriers for people to be independent within their communities.” While SEA has provided people with disabilities with its four core services, including advocacy, independent living, information and referral, and peer support, since its founding in 1990, new grant funding from the American Rehabilitation and Recovery Act has enabled the agency to offer more free services - adult daily living skills classes, youth in transition classes, low vision program and the adaptive aids for hearing impairments program. In the adult daily living skills classes, participants learn basic life skills that support independent living. The class meets twice weekly, and teaches time management, budgeting, first aid, safety, sewing, smart shopping, cooking, food preparation, personal hygiene and housekeeping tasks. The classes are small to allow plenty of time to provide individual attention to meet the consumers’ needs. The classes that started in October just concluded. “They loved it,” Renicker said of the adults who took the class. “They had fun in a fun atmosphere. They sewed. They cooked. We actually took them grocery shopping so they could decide what they wanted to cook. We taught them to stretch their dollars by going to a grocery store rather than a convenience store.” Renicker pointed out that many disabled adults don’t need to live in a nursing home or group home. Most just need to learn the activities of daily living to remain or become independent. For teens who are high school juniors or seniors, SEA is piloting a class known as youth in transition to help youth gain skills to support independent living. The class will meet after school twice weekly and teach time management, job readiness skills, social skills, budgeting and life skills. Currently, all the classes are being offered in Tuscarawas County, but transportation is available for clients from other counties, and SEA plans to eventually offer classes in all eight of the counties (Belmont, Carroll, Coshocton, Guernsey, Harrison, Holmes, Jefferson and Tuscarawas) it serves. Other new SEA services will freely assist those with hearing and/or vision impairment. The low vision program can provide closed caption TV devices, low vision services and adaptive aids but will not cover prescription glasses. The adaptive aids for hearing impairment program can provide clients with flashing doorbells, amplification phones, shake up smoke detectors, vibrating alarm clocks and other adaptive aids but will not cover hearing aids. Renicker said the idea was to provide adaptive devices that clients can’t get through other assistance programs in order to help the clients be more independent. SEA offers many other helpful services, including transportation, a medical equipment loan program and more. Renicker stressed that the majority of these are free. “We do a small intake survey (for new clients) to make sure they qualify, and most people do qualify,” she noted. For more information about SEA, call 330-343-9292 or 888-213-4452 or visit http://www.seailc.org. To participate in a SEA program or refer others, ask to speak with Heather Heid, independent living supervisor.


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