How We Help

For all of us, belonging in a community and being able to participate fully is essential to our well-being.
younger and older woman embrace with smiles

It’s About You…

Helping people in Building a Good Life…

…with opportunities for adults with a developmental disability. Mary Centre can help by offering a variety of opportunities to live in a community and provide community connection services.

Just like others, adults who have a developmental disability, want social contact, recreation and leisure activities, friendships and involvement with their community and in some situations paid employment.

This is what we strive to achieve at Mary Centre. We want to assist people in building a good life by creating new opportunities for adults who have a developmental disability – helping them work towards greater self-confidence and personal independence so they can take part in fulfilling their educational, employment and life experiences.

When someone comes to Mary Centre for the first time, we identify what is most important to that person. One tool we utilize to assist us is our Quality-of-Life Domains. We focus on eight (8) areas that have been identified as being important in any person’s life:

  • Health
  • Material Well Being
  • Social Inclusion
  • Relationships
  • Skill Building
  • Spiritual/Cultural
  • Personal Well Being and
  • Legal.

We include, where possible, their family. We respect their right to make their own choices.

Then we assist them in integrating all of the components that will achieve a rich and satisfying life. The support we offer encompasses numerous options that include a variety of community based housing and individual support services.

woman with disability preparing food in her kitchen
Community Housing
Mary Centre currently maintains apartments in Toronto, Brampton, Bramalea, and Woodbridge where we support adults with developmental disabilities.

Supported independent living provides an opportunity for people to build a good life by living independently in comfortable, safe apartments in the community with the support of Mary Centre employees.

Supported independent living enables adults who have a developmental disability to live in their own apartments or homes with the part-time support of Mary Centre employees. They and, if available, their families work as a team with Mary Centre, creating a plan for each person to reach the goals that will allow him or her to live successfully in their community. This team determines how to maximize personal strengths, how much structure is needed and what supports are required to reach the set goals. Mary Centre’s support workers are available to assist each person if and when changes to their goals or daily routines are necessary.

We also provide the support necessary for each person to interact and engage with the community. We can facilitate access to their employment, and community-based social, volunteer and recreational activities. Each person is involved with a variety of outside activities. And each person can have scheduled time with a Mary Centre support worker. This time may be spent together developing practical skills like budgeting, cooking or laundry. It could also be time spent arranging social activities such as going to the local community centre to swim or signing up for a soccer team. It could also be time together to discuss a schedule to attend church or their place of worship. Ultimately, we hope each person will develop personally, socially, and spiritually – enjoying the self-reliance that Supported Independent Living brings.

mary-centre-independent-living

Mary Centre owns houses in Brampton and in Scarborough We also lease other houses in Brampton and Stouffville. These homes provide the people living there with privacy, activities and the opportunity to make friends both at the house and within the community.

Mary Centre Group Home Resident Mike

Our homes are designed to meet the diverse needs of the people who live there. The people we currently support range in age from late teens onwards. Most of the houses are wheelchair accessible and include special features such as lifts and grab bars to facilitate the comfort, mobility and changing needs of those who live there. We devote a great deal of care to creating a home for each person that meets his or her own specific needs. And we assist each person’s efforts when building a good life by assisting them in reaching their personal goals at home, at work, and in the community. All community-based homes are supported, in some manner, twenty-four (24) hours-a-day. Our employees help each person develop

daily living skills and provide supervision and assistance as needed, with activities such as bathing, dressing, meal preparation, eating and personal care. Mary Centre support workers also facilitate access to activities during the day since most of the people we support participate in community education, employment social or recreational activities. Mary Centre is responsible for the safety and well-being of the people we support. We carefully monitor the health of each person, assist with medications and therapies as needed, and access the appropriate health care services, as identified within each person’s Individual Support Plan.

Fee for Service

Some of our services, such as respite, do require an additional fee. If there is any kind of a fee connected to the service you are seeking that you will be responsible for it will be discussed with you prior to beginning our services.

Passport Funding

Each person with a developmental disability who has been involved with the local DSO and has been accepted for services is eligible for Passport Program Funding. That funding is yours and if you would like to purchase services from Mary Centre we can discuss the various opportunities with you. In addition, we can advise you as to how we can assist you in submitting your invoices and coordinating your funding.

Building
for Life!

Currently, about 70% of the adults we support are over fifty (50) years of age. In fact, several people have been living in our community-based homes since they opened and are now in their sixties and seventies.

It Makes Sense!

People who have a developmental disability have trouble learning. They can struggle with tasks that others find easy. But in their feelings and emotions, in their range of likes and dislikes, they are more or less like anyone else.

A person can have a range of functioning connected to their disability. It is a permanent condition. Therefore people need help and support with skills like communication, grooming, mobility and making appropriate decisions. Once regarded as “patients” they were entirely dependent upon custodial care provided in large institutional settings and had few, if any, choices, or rights.

Today, people with a developmental disability are now considered full citizens entitled to receive a range of services and supports of their choosing to assist them when building a good life and enjoying full inclusion in society. They make important contributions to their workplace and community.

This is why Mary Centre celebrates developmental disabilities.
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Adults we support over the age of 50
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Over hundred (100) adults benefit annually from our community connections services in the Greater Toronto Area and the Regions of Peel and York.
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adults in the Greater Toronto Area and Region of Peel in Mary Centre homes with full-time support as well as supported independent living apartments.
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Personal match of senior to support person
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Population diagnosed as having a developmental disability. They all value respect, dignity and friendship.
man outdoors gardening

How Mary Centre defines “developmental disability”*

Every person has their strengths and abilities.
Some people are great cooks or athletes or working with their hands.

Canadians with developmental disabilities now have a life expectancy that extends beyond mid-life. Improvements in their health and life expectancy have coincided with a dramatic shift in public and professional attitudes toward them and in approaches to service delivery. Despite these positive trends, however, older adults with a developmental disability are still an under-served and marginalized group.

DID YOU KNOW:

…that the effects of aging on physical health of people who have a developmental disability are the same as for the general population, but often appear at an earlier age?

—Rehabilitation Review, May 1999

…that health promotion and disease prevention can have a major impact on the functional ability, quality of life and longevity of seniors with a developmental disability?

 

NOTES: * Terms used by other organizations include “developmental handicap,” “intellectually challenged,” “developmentally delayed,” “intellectual disability,” “mental handicap” and similar phrases. A person with a developmental disability is someone who has a significantly lower than average level of general intellectual functioning. Developmental disabilities arise from a variety of causes, for example, difficulties with pregnancy or the birth process, genetic conditions such as Down Syndrome and Fragile X, illnesses such as meningitis and encephalitis. Most people with developmental disabilities lead lives like most of the population. Some may need varying degrees of emotional support or education to live successfully. And others may require extensive support in most areas of their daily lives. Although a person with a developmental disability learns at a slower pace than the general population, he or she can learn to do many things.