Developmental Disability Services

People living with developmental disabilities often require extensive support and healthcare needs. Like all adults, they require food, water, safety measures and love as part of a sense of community inclusion and belonging.

Developmental disability services Melbourne are intended to meet the unique needs of each person with developmental disabilities. Staff from developmental disability providers help determine eligibility for waiver-covered services and assist individuals in accessing them.

Diagnosis

Diagnosing developmental disability relies on accurate tests which objectively assess both cognition (intelligence) and adaptive skills in children. A psychologist typically administers these cognitive tests while a psychiatrist or developmental pediatrician may evaluate adaptive skills.

Healthcare professionals should approach a developmental disability diagnosis carefully with parents. Their emotional reactions could have lasting ramifications on how they view their role in their children’s lives.

Healthcare professionals must maintain a positive outlook when discussing developmental disability diagnoses with parents. Reacting negatively could cause parents to mistrust the healthcare professional and lose trust; acting positively can help parents accept their child’s condition more easily. There can be multiple causes for developmental delays; genetics, nutritional deficiencies, infections, environmental toxins, poverty or trauma may be contributors; sometimes these risk factors combine in complex cases of developmental delay.

Treatment

Developmentally disabled adults frequently live independently or in groups in their local community and receive at-home and community support services that range from assistance with specific aspects of daily living up to full 24-hour support services.

Rehabilitation services aim to restore or improve an individual’s level of functioning, independence and quality of life through physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapies or behavioral management services.

Adults with developmental disabilities often require complex and significant support needs, requiring personalized residential programs tailored specifically for them. At The Foundling, residential options for adults including supervised group homes or self-contained apartments help build stable lives; respite care (to give families or live-in caregivers a break from caring), adult classroom education programs and counseling may also be provided as needed.

Psychiatric Care

If a person has been diagnosed with a developmental disability, they may require psychiatric care or rehabilitation services to manage their mental health and enhance overall treatment modalities such as physical or occupational therapy. Psychiatric care helps manage mental illness while providing additional treatments such as physical or occupational therapy as necessary.

Rehabilitation services assist people with disabilities to learn, grow and form meaningful relationships in their communities. Rehabilitation psychologists specialize in identifying and eliminating barriers that impede an individual from reaching his or her desired goals – these factors could include family networks, cultural influences, coping needs or services availability.

Supportive services provide families and individuals who care for someone with developmental disabilities the assistance they require to help the person flourish in their homes, schools or places of work. Respite services allow families, care-givers and live-in home staff who assist people with disabilities a break from daily responsibilities by temporarily taking them away for short periods during the day or night – giving them time to enjoy activities without worry over who would care for the individual with disabilities.

Community Living

Many individuals with disabilities strive to live as independently as possible, which is one of the main goals of developmental disability services; individuals can gain new skills that enable them to reach their goals while participating in community life.

These services enable adults with disabilities to live in communities they select, make decisions regarding their lives and create relationships and form friendships as easily as anyone else. Traditionally, this support was delivered through congregate programs like state-run institutions or private group homes.

Advocates have advocated for different approaches to support services; nonfacility-based or person-centered strategies provide these alternatives; for instance: