About Us: About CRI

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COMMUNITY RESIDENCES INC.

Community Residences, Inc. (CRI), is a not-for-profit corporation developed to serve people with special needs in the State of Connecticut. It is the principal goal of CRI to provide quality services to people in the least restrictive manner possible. A key to reaching this goal is the hiring, training and maintenance of a highly qualified, involved and well-motivated staff.

The objectives of CRI are to:

1. Provide services to people with special needs that are individualized, have been developed with the participation of the people that will utilize the services, and with input from people that know and care about the person.

2. Develop services that enable people with special needs to live and work in environments that provide opportunities for the development of relationships with people in their community and work place.

3. Provide programs to people who receive services from CRI that are designed to assist in the development of skills that will maximize their independence and self-reliance.

4. Give people who receive services from CRI opportunities to make choices that effect their day to day lives and where appropriate, develop strategies that will assist the individual in expressing their wants and desires.

5. Develop and operate programs that reflect positively on the individuals that live or work there and to ensure that activities and programs are designed in a manner that respect the individual.

6. Provide staff employed to work with people in its programs with the knowledge and skills necessary to appropriately interact with people with disabilities.

7. Promote recruiting persons with disabilities as board members, staff members and volunteers.

8. To work with families of individuals who have special needs to find support systems within the community and to increase community awareness of the needs of individuals who have special needs.

9. Raise funds through public solicitation and other legal means for the purpose of furthering the aims of the organization.

10. CRI provides services to people with special needs and hires staff regardless of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, age or sex.

The Community Residences Inc. (CRI) provides Day, Residential, and Foster/Adoptive Homes to over three hundred and fifty individuals at a variety of locations. Listed below is an overview of the specific types of services currently provided.

ADULT DAY PROGRAMS

The individuals in the CRI Adult Day Programs are people who have severe and profound mental retardation and are in need of significant amounts of physical and occupational therapy. The major thrust of these programs are to implement the individual's Overall Plan of Services (OPS) in such a way as to meet the person's developmental, habilitative and medical needs in the least restrictive environment as is possible. The staff in this program are actively supported by consultants who are specialists in Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech and Language Development and Behavioral Psychology. In addition to this, there is a nurse at the program sites to monitor and evaluate each participant's medical status. On a daily basis, the staff who work in the Adult Day Programs are responsible for implementing specialized feeding programs, motor development programs and utilizing special switches that allow the men and women in this program to develop abilities that will give them some control of their environment. In addition regularly scheduled community outings provide the participants with opportunities to explore and experience the world outside of the day program setting.

CRI operates Community Training Homes, Foster and Adoptive Homes children and adults who are clients of the Department of Mental Retardation (DMR) and the Department of Children and Families (DCF). In this program, homes are recruited, licensed, and individuals in need of supervision and support are then placed in the homes. Through its two contracts with the DMR and DCF, CRI is responsible to recruit, train, license and provide ongoing support and supervision to CTH and Foster/Adoptive Care providers. CRI currently serves 130 children and 35 adults in these two programs.

The CRI Supported Living Arrangement (SLA) Program is designed to provide assistance to people with mild to moderate disabilities who live independently in their own home. People who are supported by this program may need assistance with money management, meal preparation, home care, health maintenance, or any other need area that can be handled by drop in staff. CRI currently supports 35 individuals with a variety of needs in supported living. These needs range from issues with sexuality, social isolation, severe mental retardation, and a variety of mental health issues.

COMMUNITY LIVING ARRANGEMENTS

The CRI Community Living Arrangement (CLA) Program provides twenty-four hour supervision to people living in a group home type environment. The people living in this environment have needs for significant support in all areas of development. In conjunction with the individual's day program, CRI attempts to provide habilitative, social and recreational activities that will enable the individual to develop increased levels of independence. The CLA's are licensed by the DMR and are monitored on a regular basis for compliance to regulations and quality of services.

INTERMEDIATE CARE FACILITY/MENTAL RETARDATION

The six Intermediate Care Facility/Mental Retardation (ICF/MR) group homes operated by CRI provide services to individuals who have severe-profound mental retardation and have other significant handicapping conditions. This highly regulated program which is funded by the Department of Department of Social Services and monitored by the Department of Health, is designed to provide active treatment in the least restrictive environment possible and to utilize an IDT process to determine needs and develop/monitor the implementation of programs.

1. Designed, developed, and opened three ICF-MR Group Homes for the people coming out of Hillside Manor Nursing Home and the New Haven Regional Center. The three houses were developed on schedule and were licensed by the State Health Department with no deficiencies from day one of operation.

2. Operates six ICF-MR Group Homes that have maintained near one hundred percent active treatment rates and have been recognized by both DMR and the State Department of Health as begin model programs for people with multiple handicaps.

3. Opened a Group Home for people who had lived in Connecticut Valley Hospital (CVH) for years and have had significant psychiatric issues. The home was developed for DMR Region 5 and since it’s opening, the people in this home have become integrated into their community and the quality of their lives has significantly improved.

4. Took over responsibility for the operation in 1992 of a four bed ICF-MR group home. In 1995, took over the operation of two four-bed ICR-MR Group Homes formerly operated by NCDC. In 1997 took over the operation of five group homes serving dually diagnosed men and women in Torrington, in 1998, CRI took over the operation of a 25 person day program in Brookfield, and in 2000 took over the responsibility for a day program in Waterbury serving 50 people. In each instant and in an expedient fashion:

          1. Transitioned the clients to new staff and management.

          2. Assisted family members with the change.

          3. Significantly upgraded the day and residential facilities.

           4. Immediately improved the quality of life for the people
           transferred as well as the quality of program and medical
           operations.

          5. Met all licensing and regulatory requirements of DMR.

5. Serve over 350 children and adults in 25 locations in a personalized, efficient and humanistic fashion while at the same time meeting the licensing regulations of the State and Federal Government. This is reflected in excellent licensing surveys and mid-year reports provided by the Northern, Southern and Western DMR Regions

It has been the experience of Community Residences, Inc., that the quality of its programs are directly linked to the level of training, motivation and accountability of its employees. All staff and providers hired for CRI operated programs are put through a rigorous application process and have police checks done to ensure that proper care is provided for the clients. All staff working within its programs receive inservice training as per its Policies and Procedures. The number of staff per program is dependent on the needs of the individual clients and the number of beds in the home. Each CRI program has a designated Manager who is responsible for scheduling, staff supervision, and assists in training all staff hired to work in the program. The CRI Program Coordinator is responsible for the supervision and support of the Program Manager. The overall Program, is managed by the Residential, Day, or Community Placement Director.

Program Administration

All CRI Programs are administratively managed by a Program Director. Medical Services are supervised by the Director of Nursing Services and overall Quality Assurance is monitored by a Program Coordinator. All Secretarial, bookkeeping and accounting necessary for the successful implementation of this project is coordinated out of the Community Residences, Inc. office in Southington.

Dependent on the needs identified by the individual’s Overall Plan of Service, Community Residences, Inc. will contract with licensed professionals to provide the necessary support to assist the staff in the care and programming of the clients. This Support Staff may consist of any of the following disciplines: Social Work, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Speech, Behavior Therapy, Nursing, etc. The Therapist will, for the majority of their time, be responsible to work with the Program Manager to assist them to develop appropriate programs and skills and to monitor the implementation of the programs developed. In addition, they will be made available to the individual’s IDT for the development and monitoring of the Overall Plan of Service.

It is the philosophy of Community Residences, Inc. that it should do everything possible to assist a participant maintain relationships with people in their Community in addition to their families, friends and advocates. In order to facilitate this, CRI will take the following actions:

1. Maintain Policies and Procedures, which are supportive to friends and family, and ensure that the clients’ rights for freedom of association are guarded.

2. All CRI operated residential and day facilities spend time supporting their community by donating food to the homeless shelters, delivering meals to the elderly, working for the Red Cross or in some other way giving something back. In this manner the clients in the homes develop ongoing relationships with people in their community and are not perceived as a burden to society.

3. CRI is committed to having clients recreate in the community and to have them fully participate in Connecticut town life. To this end, and as a part of their regular activities, CRI encourages clients to do their own clothing and food shopping, to attend movies and concerts in the community, join sports teams and interact with their neighbors. It is the responsibility of CRI to make these opportunities available to the clients and to encourage integration where ever and whenever possible.

4. Families and friends are encouraged to visit at the program at any time they choose. Space is made available so that their visits can be private and staff are encouraged to be welcoming and supportive. In addition to this, CRI will often volunteer to transport clients to their families’ home so that they can enjoy a day or weekend visit. This is especially helpful to families when the client is in an adaptive wheelchair that needs to be transported in a specialized wheelchair van.

5. CRI is committed to making every effort possible to include family and advocates in the annual planning process. OPS meetings are held at a time, which is arranged with the family and opportunities are made for them to make their feelings and concerns a part of the meeting.

CRI’s residential, day and community-based programs have a reputation for excellence, which has been documented by numerous successful State and Federal Inspections. This has been accomplished by taking the attitude that one gets what one “inspects” not what one “expects”. To this end, CRI has in place the following strategies to ensure that the people living in its programs get the highest quality of services.

1. Each program operated by CRI has an assigned quality assurance position. The role of this position is to ensure that the Agency complies with program standards and regulations.

2. The Quality Assurance position is the pivotal person for insuring that the program is operating within compliance of regulations and that the individuals living in the program are being consistently and effectively managed. The QA position is in the program on a regular basis, is responsible to work with all consultants connected to the home and receives supervision from the Program Director.

3. CRI contracts with experienced, competent consultants, who are hired to assess client needs, develop programs, train providers and provide ongoing feedback regarding the client’s progress. The consultants, as needed, observe providers implementing programs and provide feedback as to the consistency and appropriateness of its implementation.

4. Each Home program operated by CRI has a Registered Nurse assigned. This individual’s responsibility is to ensure that the individual’s primary health needs are met and that all necessary steps are taken to prevent health related problems. In addition, the CRI Nursing staff is available twenty-four hours per day to support the direct care staff in making decisions related to each client’s health status.