WARWICK – For decades, Peg Gault was a support worker at a group home for adults with developmental disabilities. Over time, close relationships grew between her and many residents, but none more so than Sheila, a woman who had been institutionalized by the state for her entire life, much of it at the Ladd School before it was closed.
Gault visited Sheila on her days off and even after she retired from the job. After Gault’s husband died and her son began to recover from a serious illness, she decided there was someone missing from her life – Sheila.
"So, I contemplated this for a few months... I knew who I wanted to take. I just made up my mind that she was it and I was going to take her," she said. Gault contacted MENTOR Shared Living, the Rhode Island branch of a national company that pairs adults with developmental disabilities with families or single people willing to take them in, and told them she had a plan. Not long after that Sheila, who turned 55 this week, left the group home and the institutional setting where she had spent her entire life and started a new chapter in the Gault home.
Today, Sheila and Gault are two peas in a pod. Where Gault goes – shopping or to the hair salon or to Mass at St. Francis de Sales Church – Sheila goes too.
"She's fun, she's happy-go-lucky," she said. "I'm in and out so I take her everywhere I go."
Sheila loves to go out, almost as much as she loves to sing, classics by the Beach Boys and the Platters are some of her favorites.
"I drive, she sings," Gault said.
Even at church, she said, Sheila loves to sing along, even during the parts of Mass usually sung only by the priest.
Gault said that since she has moved into the house, Sheila has blossomed and grown in a lot of ways. "She loves the one-to-one attention and you don't get that at a group home," she said. "You see the biggest difference in all these clients when they get out [in the community]," she said, adding that Sheila has "blossomed verbally" in her home.
During the day Sheila attends school at a nearby facility for adults with developmental disabilities. She has responsibilities there – setting the table for meals and helping with the cooking and washing dishes. She has also taken on some responsibilities in Gault's home like getting the mail and taking out the garbage.
"She's very, very helpful; she's always wanting to help," Gault said. Sheila is a stickler for order. Everything has a place and she makes sure that it goes there.
Sheila has also become close with Gault's oldest son, Steven, who lives at home while still recovering from an illness. She calls him "Big Dog." When any of her nine grandchildren come to visit, Gault said that Sheila is a part of the family. Her granddaughters paint her nails and she keeps her grandsons laughing, Sheila is "very family oriented and wants to be around people," Gault said.
Watching Sheila and Gault interact is like watching the oldest of friends. They communicate but don't need to say much. Sheila speaks, but mainly repeats things she hears; nevertheless, she and Gault communicate on a different level. Gault said she is like "a very close roommate" and they call each other "girlfriend."
Living together has been as beneficial for Gault as it has been for Sheila it seems. "I feel like I've accomplished something and I've done some good at the end of the day," she said. "I feel like I'm giving back."
"I wish I was younger," Gault added, "I would consider taking another one."
MENTOR Shared Living has had a Rhode Island office for two and a half years, according to Shaelyn Crooks a program recruiter there. They provide shared living for adults like Sheila and with a wide variety of physical and developmental disabilities, a home with someone generous and caring like Gault. The process is extensive – background checks, medical reports, first-aid training, home inspections and extensive interviews are all part of the months-long approval process for people who decide they want to open their home to shared living.
Down to the vaccination reports on family pets, MENTOR checks into every detail about the people who want to be mentors. "We try to ensure the highest quality of care and the best way that we can do that is to make sure that these providers are good people," Crooks said.
The dynamic between the client and the prospective mentor is something Crooks spends a lot of time trying to gauge. "We want to understand the family dynamic really well; how will adding a person to the home affect everybody involved... sometimes it's just a gut feeling," she said.
Mentors are paid a daily, tax-free stipend for the services they provide, based on that specific client's needs, and they are also entitled to two-thirds of the client's social security check to cover living expense. In return, they provide a client with a safe, private bedroom, transportation to all medical appointments and a gateway to the community and help achieving their goals, which are set yearly in conjunction with MENTOR.
"Anyone can become a mentor. We're looking for honest, loving, compassionate people who have a desire to make a difference in somebody's life," Crooks said. There is no time limit set on the living arrangement, but "we're looking for long-term commitments," she said.
Working for MENTOR is often a matter of faith – faith in the goodness of people, faith in their willingness to open their homes and faith in the client's ability to handle life outside an institution in a new home.
Crooks said she is constantly looking for new people to be mentors, but she is confident that she'll always be able to find the right home for her clients, "I just believe that there's a home for everyone... and there is."
For more information about the MENTOR program contact Shaelyn Crooks at 732-0304 or visit www.ri-mentor.com.
