Five Types of Habilitation Goals for Autism
Residential habilitation can help your autistic family member to develop a wide range of skills and abilities that will make life easier for her. When determining what kinds of goals to set, these might be some of the most important ones to consider, depending on your family member’s current skill set.
Expressing Frustration in Ways that Are Productive
Frustration is just one type of over-stimulation that your autistic family member might experience. It can be enough to send your family member straight into a meltdown unless she learns ways to express that frustration that are beneficial and productive for her and for the people around her. RHS can help to explore the solutions that work for her.
Learning to Understand Social Cues
Social cues can be incredibly frustrating for some autistic people. If your family member has trouble with social cues, participating in community events and even being out in public can be stressful and may contribute to frustration. As your family member learns more and experiencing more positive social interactions, that all helps to build a library of social cues.
Practicing Conversational Skills
The other part of socializing that can be difficult for autistic people is developing conversational skills. Initiating conversations can be incredibly difficult, even when those conversations are necessary. Your family member may need to learn and to practice carrying on conversations with a variety of people.
Shopping for Necessary Items
Being out in public can be difficult for some autistic people. So difficult, in fact, that some of the daily activities that other people take for granted, like shopping in a grocery store, might be skills that your family member hasn’t mastered yet. Mastering those skills, even in a more controlled setting, is a great goal to set.
Tackling Household Skills Necessary for Self-care
Being able to do a load of laundry and make a simple meal are another set of household skills that your autistic family member needs to practice. These types of self-care tasks could be the key to your family member being able to live more independently in the future, if that’s what she wants to do. Managing a budget, cleaning, and other skills could also be part of the goal.
Residential habilitation can also help you to find additional autism resources to help you and your family member to manage all kinds of other concerns, too. Having as many resources as possible can help you to feel more comfortable meeting your family member’s needs.
If you are considering residential habilitation in Broad Ripple, IN, please call the caring staff at RSI Cares. Serving Greater Indianapolis Area. Call for Immediate Info & Assistance: 317-471-0750.
As a practicing Registered Nurse, Etelka was keenly aware of a void in quality patient care that could be provided in the home. She embarked upon a journey to develop a home health care agency that would exceed all expectations and become a trusted partner to physicians and patients.
A Distinguished Career From Nurse to Director of Nursing to President of Home Services Unlimited
Etelka’s distinguished career followed a logical progression to her position as President of Home Services Unlimited. She graduated as a nurse practitioner with a Bachelor of Nursing (RN) in 1972 from Meshgorya University in the Ukraine, close to where she lived with her family. She married her husband Phil in 1973 and decided in 1977 that they would relocate to the United States to be closer to family and to come to this land of opportunity. With an eagerness to continue her budding career, Etelka sat for and passed her Boards in the U.S. in 1979.
A Love and Talent for Working with the Elderly
Etelka began her nursing career in the U.S. at Colonial Crest, now part of Golden Living, where shewasthe In-service Coordinator, the Director of Training and Education and Director of Nursing, a position she occupied for several years.
With a group of partners, she co-founded Adept Corporation, which operated group homes for the mentally challenged. The business was successful and in 1996, Etelka sold her share to return to her roots, caring for the elderly.
In January of 1997, Etelka opened Home Services Unlimited as a fully licensed business to provide home health care. In her quest to learn to do better for her patients, she had already obtained a Masters in Healthcare Administration (MHA) in May of 1990 from the College of St. Francis. As President of Home Services Unlimited, Inc., Etelka guides the trusted, experienced care model Home Services Unlimited uses to continue providing excellent home health care.
Giving Back to the Community of Indianapolis
Volunteering for community services is a high priority for Etelka. Her memberships include the Indiana Association of Rehabilitation Facilities, Executive Women in Health Care and the Indiana Association for Home and Hospice Care, where she is a member of the Board of Directors.
Etelka has also served on the Board of Directors with Hooverwood Home, a highly regarded geriatric facility, since 1997 and as the President for 2005-2006. Through her community work, she has received several awards and accolades, including the Nora McFarland award in 2002, from the Indiana Association of Home and Hospice Care.
Etelka was honored as a “Health Care Hero” by the Indianapolis Business Journal. The issue can be read online here:
http://mags.ibj.com/activemagazine/welcome/html/ibjhch.html.
After clicking on the link, then click on the image of the issue’s front page. After that, you can browse through the issue or click in a box near the top of your internet browser to adjust the page to 17, which is where Etelka’s article appears.
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