By Bob Dolgan
Special to Inside
Older adults with disabilities are a fast-growing segment of the population, and in Chicago, Anixter Center's Greater Life Program is one of the few options designed especially for them. According to the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Aging with Developmental Disabilities at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC), there were 641,000 adults with developmental disabilities over age 60 in the United States in 2000; those numbers are expected to nearly double to 1,242,800 by 2030.
Without appropriate programming, seniors with developmental disabilities often find themselves spending too much time alone. For example, James Scanlan, 67, spent nearly a decade isolated in his Rogers Park apartment before enrolling in Anixter Center's Greater Life Program in 1998. "I don't like to be alone for too long," says Scanlan. "I get depressed." But now, Scanlan gradually has become accustomed to the community again. He is learning how to play guitar and keyboard, volunteering at senior citizens centers and occasionally traveling across the Midwest. Scanlan and his energetic peers refute the notion that seniors with developmental disabilities should languish in their latter years.
Founded in 1993, Greater Life is based in Lincoln Park. It is one of the 70 programs in 35 locations available through Anixter Center, one of the largest human services agencies in the region serving more than 5,000 people a year.
"When James became part of the outside world again, he was faced not only with the joys of it, but the anxieties also," Anixter Center Senior Services Coordinator Bill Golding says. "Now he's broken out of his shell."
"There's been a change in the rehabilitation field," says Dr. Alan Factor, associate director of the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Aging with Developmental Disabilities at UIC. "The shift is toward seniors with developmental disabilities feeling they are part of the community."
Individuals in the Greater Life Program share their life stories in a "living biographies" group, compiling scrapbooks and discussing history. One woman dictated her life story on tape to Golding, who added dramatic instrumental music to the background.
"Their life stories are exceptional," Golding says. "Many of these people were locked up in institutions for many years. We discuss good and bad things."
Coping with grief has been a common topic in recent years.
"Six individuals died in a span of a year and a half," Golding says. "We let the individuals we serve know that it is okay to express their emotions and that death is part of life."
Greater Life currently serves 27 people age 55 and older. Other weekly activities include swimming, music, current events discussions and outings to places like Garfield Park Conservatory and Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. One annual highlight is a weekend trip to a cabin in Eagle River, WI.
"Our job is to integrate them into the community," Golding says. "We try to do everything mainstream seniors do."
With state budget cuts facing social services frequently in recent years, political activity has become an important part of Greater Life. Rosemary Ruppel, who has been an Anixter Center client for 13 years, fondly recalls riding down to Springfield with her friends to meet with legislators.
"We had a lot of fun over there," Ruppel says.
Ruppel also escorts people who are blind and people who use wheelchairs around Anixter Center's building on N. Clybourn Ave.
"We have a lot of friends," Ruppel says. "We take the people in their wheelchairs and talk to them. We all get along."
Meanwhile, Scanlan shows that people of any age can learn something new. He continues to practice the guitar. The Greater Life Program gives him a good reason to leave his apartment every weekday morning.
"It's a challenge to be able to play an instrument," he says.
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