Programs and Services
“Many persons with severe disabilities have no such support, or what they do have is woefully inadequate. Poverty and disability have a long history, and self-sufficiency and poverty are incompatible.”
Full time and part time residential services in a home of their own, or in the family home.
CSO hires and trains staff to assist the people we support, and their families, in the following areas:
Additionally, staff will provide any assistance, agreed upon by individual their family and CSO, that improves the quality of life, reflects personal choice and promotes participation in community living.
Personal Care
Some people we support require quite a lot of care. Cheryl needed someone to stay awake while she slept to make sure that she didn’t choke or have a seizure. Ethan needs his supporters to “sleep with one eye open” to make sure he isn’t sick in the night or if there is an emergency of some sort, they can get him in his chair and out of the house.
James, on the other hand needed someone to stay awake to make sure he kept out of trouble. Once he ran up a $900 charge on someone else’s phone by switching out the sim card and talking freely with people all over the world.
Trish can do many things for herself but seems to sometimes lose her train of thought and benefits from supervision and reminder. She tends to not complete the task without such oversight. So her mom, who is paid as a CSO employee, closely supervises her daily baths and regular shampoos to make sure the job is well-done.
Nathan, Dan and Sam are each quite able and can take care of most personal things. Nathan likes to cook for himself, and Dan resists his doctor’s advice to eat better by being proficient with Door Dash. While Ethan needs help dressing and undressing, he has fashioned his own way to take off a jacket: First he reaches behind his head and pulls the jacket up from his back, overhead and then off his right arm with his left hand. Getting it off his left is trickier since his right arm doesn’t really work well. So, he grips as best he can with his right and shakes and shimmies it off. We try to help folks figure out as many of these novel solutions as possible so even those who need a good deal of personal care can at least help, even if just a bit.
Community Outings
Being “out and about” is important to everyone even if you need support. Nathan likes events: home shows, gem shows, black sheep congress, just anything that comes to town. He even travels annually to take in the Lincoln City Kite Show.
Sam loves reptiles and while he keeps a couple as pets, he especially loves to visit the reptile store to see what’s new and to visit with snakes and “dragons” that he can’t really keep at home. Ethan enjoys long drives during which he can listen to his music. In fact, his weekly trip to the city library gives him a chance to listen to different genres of music which he can then transfer to his own devices.
Trish is more of a homebody and needed a bit of coaxing to get “out and about’; but now she willingly goes with one of her supporters to run errands as long as one stop results in her getting her favorite soda (Dr. Pepper). She likes going out to lunch, driving in the country where she can see dogs, cows and birds. She also loves fish, and her support person is hoping to plan a visit to the Newport aquarium.
Lisa, Cathy, and Tom each have many health and medical needs, but still, when the weather permits, Lisa loves to get out for walks in the neighborhood. Tom used to enjoy magazines and other books that had interesting pictures. Cathy liked riding in her van and going out for lunch fairly frequently
Work and Volunteer Activities
Ethan worked for nearly 30 years at the University of Oregon and has a small PERS account. The job was perfect: vehicles are not allowed on the main campus, but wheelchairs are. With the help of Vocational Rehab, he got a metal cart fashioned that attached to the rear of his wheelchair. He worked at the Erb Memorial Union to collect food and supplies for the cart and drove a route of classroom buildings which had small coffee shops so he could resupply them. In the process he became an important university resource who “tested” where the automatic doors operated properly ensuring access for all folks with disabilities or who have their hands full. Unfortunately, the pandemic caused him to lose the job, and he decided he was ready to retire.
Nathan also works at the University delivering mail from the main university mail room to a series of stops where he sorts the mail into faculty/staff mailboxes. He also works at a local bakery and has for 20 years now. The job is small just involving a few hours a week. But those few hours allow him to decorate cookies which he really enjoys.
Trish has worked many years at what used to be called a “sheltered workshop”. At first she earned a tiny bit since some of the tasks she did were part of other jobs. Now she attends regularly to see others who have become her friends and to share doing things with them like movies, crafts and field trips. She especially enjoyed a recent outing to the fish hatchery on the McKenzie River.
Transportation
After CSO had existed for some years, three adults who had lived at Fairview since they were children, joined us. Fairview was Oregon’s institution in Salem for people with developmental disabilities. When they returned to Eugene, Sara, Sam and Stan, who had become very good friends in Fairview, decided to stay together. They have since passed, but Stan did drive until his last years.
Stan was the exception. All the other folks CSO do not drive. Some, like Ethan and Lisa need specialized vans to travel and their supporters must learn how to make sure they are safely secured. Others like Nathan, Dan and Sam rely on their support staff to get them to work, do necessary errands like grocery shopping or get to their favorite pastimes. Nathan schedules his grocery trips into his weekly schedule. One Monday he goes to Winco and the next week chooses Fred Meyer.
Support staff also provide the means to get to favorite activities. Darin helps Nathan get to the Umpqua river for bass fishing. Pam and Christy once took Ethan to Seattle for a long weekend. Rose and Sam used to borrow a beach wheelchair from the local Parks and Rec so he could go to the coast regularly and get his feet wet. Dan loves building models from his favorite gaming characters but needs help to get to his favorite stores since some are up in Portland.
Visiting Friends and
Developing/Maintaining Relationships
All the People CSO supports benefit from help staying in touch with friends and family. For some it’s a matter of keeping their calendar so they can be reminded when it’s time to get a birthday card or buy a Christmas present for mom. For others, its inviting friends or family over and helping with the preparations. Some can manage mostly independently. Like keeping a list of phone numbers and being able to call a friend. Others need to be reminded that it’s time to take a birthday card to mom or plan something for Mother’s Day
The first live-in supporters Ethan had liked to hold big parties (Halloween, Easter, Christmas, Ethan’s birthday) and invite upwards of 50 fiends and family members over. Sometimes even Trish would come. Dan will visit with gaming friends by going to the various shops he frequents and hanging out for a while. Sometimes his support person drops him off and picks him up, but other times he takes Ride Source. Trish enjoys her friends at the activity program she now attends, and she also has become close with her support person. Ethan still visits with a supervisor he used to have at his UO.
All CSO support staff regard keeping people connected and making new friends and acquaintances is an important part of their ongoing responsibility.
Budgeting and Bill Pay
Different families and adults manage money and bills in different ways and these often evolve over time. Stan, Sam and Sara managed their income independently but required help managing bills and planning for special events—like where they could get Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. They discovered Albertson’s offers a complete prepared mean and that became their go-to for holiday meals.
Others like Lisa, Cathy and Tom have little awareness of money and family members typically manage such matters for them. Sam can pay for things at the reptile store, but his supporters make sure there is money in his wallet when he goes to the store and manage paying his bills and formal paperwork. Trish likes to go to the Dollar Store and buy herself a coloring book or other tablet to draw and “write” in, but while she understands how to pay for things in stores, she needs help making sure she has enough money and relies on others to really manage her money.
Similarly, Ethan knows about exchanging money for things he wants—like coffee at Starbucks or the local diner—like others he also relies on others to manage his bills and income. His parents managed things for years, but now his primary support person manages a bank account into which his monthly resources are deposited. Most of his bills are paid automatically and his parents still okay special expenses like an overnight trip to the Florence casino or emergency expenses like a new refrigerator. Money is managed with each person’s home with careful record-keeping that can be regularly reviewed and balanced by both staff and other officials who manage oversight.
Household Tasks
All CSO adults need varying support with basic household tasks. Some like Lisa, Cathy and Tom need someone else to do nearly everything. But most can participate at least some.
Nathan can do most things for himself, including cooking and Laundry. Trish likes to help setting and clearing the table and will help her mom with some easy cooking tasks. Dan likes to cook but lives in a studio apartment with a shared kitchen, so he will cook with his support person at her house. He does have a refrigerator/freezer in his studio along with a microwave, so one they cook, they package up things into individual meals which he freezes.
Ethan doesn’t have the agility to do many things, but he can “help” fold laundry by picking up a warm piece and tossing it to the one actually folding. He can contribute to recycling by sorting paper from other things and put them in the correct container. In the kitchen he can dome things into a bowl or turn on the appliance to mix his smoothie or make a cake. For yard work, he generally stays on his deck and “supervises”.
Medical Appointments and Medication Administration
State regulations include careful documentation of all medication administration and such reports are reviewed regularly for accuracy and consistency. Protocols exist for all medical or behavioral procedures that are tailored to each adult. While many family members take responsibility for setting up and managing medical appointments, that can change over time. Ethan’s support person now manages medical and dentist appointments as well as the accompanying paperwork with county and state agencies. He also handles annual vaccinations such as flu and Covid. While his parents did this for many years, they gradually transferred these tasks to Ethan and his supporters.
According to her mom, Trish “never gets sick”. In fact she is remarkably healthy, so it’s not too much of a burden for her to manage routine checkups, vaccinations, and dental visits. Dan handles his medical appointments on his own using Ride Source, but relies on his supporter when it involves surgery or a special test. Nathan has some complicated medical needs to support both is physical and mental health, and relies on his mother to help the medical professionals manage and balance his medications for the best possible results. For each adult, CSO medical supports and medication administration are tailored to the adult’s and family’s preferences.