New Horizons helps special needs adults in the San Fernando Valley

by Dana Bartholomew from The Los Angeles Daily News:
LAKE VIEW TERRACE >> When Marilyn Weiss wants to head out on a date with her boyfriend, she’s hit on a hot ticket for getting around Los Angeles: the bus.
This year, the developmentally disabled woman took advantage of a new travel training program at New Horizons that has helped widen her urban world — to the movies, to the mall and as far away as historic Pasadena.
“I like it,” said Weiss, 59, of North Hills, beaming. “Because I can take the bus by myself. Makes me feel happy. Him, too.
“Without New Horizons, I’d be bored. I’d be nothing. I’d stay home.”

New Horizons, the San Fernando Valley’s oldest social service agency to help special needs adults, celebrated 60 years of service Saturday with a seventh annual 5K Run/Walk on the Horizon.
Where smiling greeters waved to visitors along a road leading into the Hansen Dam Aquatics Center in Lake View Terrace.
Where up to 300 hoofers circled the fog-shrouded waters to support the North Hills-based agency that empowers special needs residents through training for independent travel, education, recreation, work and housing.

And where family members could recall a not-so-distant time when such disabled residents were shunned to the shadows of their communities.
“Way back in the Dark Ages, we were told to get rid of these kids, put ‘em in the house,” said Susan Gross, a member of Friends of New Horizons, whose daughter Cindy has found a measure of freedom through the agency for three decades. “We’re not going to do it, because they’re our children.
“My daughter’s a fighter.”

Fewer services for patients with Down syndrome who are affected by Alzheimer's

  by Susan Abram from Pasadena Star News: She had learned to care for herself, to work and count her money so she could buy food, set the table, tell time and use a phone to dial 911. Now 60 years old, Denise Steinberg is forgetting the little things. She puts her blouse on backwards or her pants on inside out. Her attention span has dwindled. She is acting out toward her roommates. "I'm seeing the signs more and more, and I'm freaking out because where is she going to go?" asks Terri Budow, Denise's younger sister. "I love her and I want her to be around people who care and who love her, too." Steinberg was born with a developmental disability at time when she and people like her expected to live only until they were 30 years old. Now, she is part of an unexpected trend: Those with Down syndrome or other development disabilities are living longer, but in some cases, not necessarily better. More than 90 percent of those with Down syndrome develop Alzheimer's disease by the time they are in their late 40s. "This is something the community has never had to deal with before," said Roschell Ashley, director for residential services for New Horizons. The nonprofit New Horizons formed in the San Fernando Valley in 1954 to help those with developmental disabilities learn life skills, find employment and receive housing. But a new need has emerged. As their clients age, New Horizons saw that its group homes were not adequate

for elder clients with Alzheimer's and dementia. Of the nearly 700 clients the agency serves, more than half are 40 years or older. So in 2008, the agency began plans for a six-bedroom group home just for those with Down syndrome who develop Alzheimer's, one of only a handful in California and nationwide.