The Other Living Skills

I know in Maryland there has been an overwhelming task to get the disabled out of institutions. I see why this is a very big ordeal from finding affordable housing to support staff to make independent living possible. I know in my case it took months to get all of this line up and people still looked at my mom and I as is we were crazy for even thinking of this.


When I was in my third semester at Towson U., I took my Intro. Psych class. I did a paper on the topic of Social R****, at the time it was a hot topic, because a lot of the disabled were being mainstream into school. The problem was that they did not know how to interact with the rest of the students in a social setting that are there peers, since many came from protective environments at school and the home.

I am wondering if any studies have been following the disabled that have been in institution and now live in the community? I have been on my own since I was 18 and even had to learn proper hygiene, keeping clean living space, and knowing whom to trust. Where as a person that was institutionalized had no opportunity to develop these skills.

Mrs. G. my assistant at Parkville said it best. Even if I wanted to keep a condom in my wallet, I could not. Because she would know it was in there. Trust is the best skill the disabled community can fine tune and uses. 


This is just one of the many issues that need to be address in the disability community, but is over looked because of time and funding.