A Look At Two Local Adult Foster Care Homes

THIRD OF FOUR ARTICLES) The house isn't too easy to find since there's no house number on the front of the white, two-stpry frame structure on East Cross Street in Ypsilanti. This is one of more than 100 adult foster care homes in Washtenaw County which house former or potential mental patients. Today, The News looks at two 'such homes, which have been described by one local mental health worker as part of a program that is "not well supervised" because of crisscrossing jurisdictional lines. A note on the front door of the Ypsilanti residence asks you to go to the "back door," which is really to the side and a few steps to the rear. A young man dressed in slacks and a knit shirt opens the door at your knock. Inside, the 9 by 12 living room seems, sweltering after the brisk cold winter weather outside and the young woman with the soft Kentucky accent tells you it's so hot downstairs because it's so cold upstairs. "lf we fyni the heat down, down here," she says, "there'll be icicles upstairs." The furniture and the decor aren't sumptuous, nor are they stark; there are small impressionistic prints framed on the wall and the paint on the walls seems new. The furniture is of another era but clean. A sign on the newlyenameled kuchen door states no one is allowed in the kitchen except during meals. The kitchen, itself, is clean and neat with the exception of some water on the floor which seems to be coming from the bottom of the refrigerator. Over the sink, the week's menus are posted with nutritious, low-cost meals - dinners of tuna and noodles, fish cakes and spaghetti, for example. Over the telephone, also in the'kitchen, is a sign posting rules for its use. No calis are to last longer than three minutes, it says, and no incoming calis will be accepted unless they' re from relatives or social workers. Also in the kitchen is the framed permit which authorizes the home's use for three unrelated persons. There are six residents in the home, five men and one 24-year-old woman, besides the "caretakers." The residents are all upstairs, some of them talking rather loudly, but not arguing, the young woman points out, after going to check up on them. They have a record-player, which they share for entertainment. The person we come to visit gets two dollars every Sunday for church, but reportedly puts one dollar in the plate and keeps the other dollar to buy his breakfast out on Sunday mornings after church because he leaves that morning before breakfast has been prepared at the home. The young woman, her husband and their two-year-old child live at the home as caretakers. They've had their position for a month after answering a newspaper advertisement for a "housekeeper" which did not stipulate that the work would be in an adult foster care home. Although the woman says she's only 18, she adds that she carne from a large family so is used to cooking for a large number of people and she has had some short-term experience working in a hospital. Her husband was laidoff his former employment recently, so this new job carne at just the right time for them, shesays. They enjoy working with the residents of the home, she says, and they haven't had any problems except for one resident who had to leave because "he got too violent." Neither she, nor her husband, had had any experience in the mental health care area previous to this job. But the residents also use the Ypsilanti Area Community Services, which primarily sponsors recreational activities. And they visit a doctor monthly for check-ups and changes in medication. i When one male resident, a former patiënt at Ypsilanti State Hospital, was tionalized, he performed several jobs in the 1 workshop environment of the hospital, including working in the laundry and dry-cleaning areas, and answering the telephone for a few hours each day in an office. Now, with no organized activity, he spends i most of his day just sitting. The resident got lost recently on an outing and couldn't teil the sheriff 's officer where he lived, but he póints out, "There's no house number on the front of this house." The woman who hired the young caretaker couple owns three adult foster care homes in Ypsilanti; another woman owns eight of these homes there. Mrs. James H. Fondren of Ann Arbor is an adult foster care provider also. She and her husband live in a large ranch-style home on the north side of town with seven womenrangingiigefrom 'They can cope if they're allowed the chance,' says one operator of a home. 'Some peope would treat them as if they were stili in the hospital. I don't; I treat them as if they were one of us. ' about 25 to the middle fifties. One resident works at University Hospital in a regular paid job and pays her own room and board. The remainder receive assistance. One attends an adult activity center, one is a volunteer worker at University Hospital, one attends activities at the Fifth Avenue Club, an adult day center, another is a student a Washtenaw Community College, one has been in and out of the hospital following her husband's death, Mrs. Fondren says, and the seventh, who liad no confidence about herself in the past, is now reaching the point where she will be able to work. "I don't insist on their helping with the chores," Mrs. Fondren says. "It's up to them if they want to. But the first Sunday in the month, one girl takes over and the others fill in so I can go out and they don't confine me at all. "I treat them in a way so that they feel at home here and comfortable. During the summer, I go away for an entire month and they carry on. When I get back the house is spotless," she explains. "They can cope if they 're allowed the chance," she points out. "Some people would treat them as if they were still in the hospital. I don't; I treat them as if they I were one of us." Most of the residents have I beenthere four or five years, I she says, with the latest perI son having come two years a go. iniMM We're a family group," Mrs. Fondren says. "If som'eone has a problem, we talk it over and try to work out our own problems. There isn't too much dickering and gossiping." The night bef ore, she says, she heard one of her "girls" I crying on the steps and got up to see what the problem was. "She handed me all her medicine and said she thought ,1 should keep it because she was afraid of taking her own life." The next morning, Mrs. Fondren and the resident went together to see the doctor to talk over her problems. "They come to me with their problems because they know I'll either try to help them or get in touch with someone - either my doctor or theirs - who can help. "You have to like people to ' do this, you can't do it for the ' money alone," she points out ' quietly. "I don't keep track of ' the grocery bilis. I serve ; yone the same things I eat and they help decide what f we're going to eat, especially s on the weekends. They're e crazy about chicken and v burgers." Mrs. Fondren receives $6.50 I a day for each resident, which amounts to $195 monthly, including the resident's $23 a month for personal expenses. Until last September, she says, the allotment was $150 a month. With that money, she says, she furnishes room, board, bed linens, towels and soap. 'Tve heard that in some places, the residents have to buy their own soap and toilet paper. I don't have it like that here. 'Tve also heard that in other places the food is locked HWay. There are no locks on my kitchen doors, cupboards or refrigerator here." This is evidenced by thè fact that the kitchen is an unenclosed space opening onto a sitting room - just off the more formally furnished living room - where two of the residents sit, in the evening, watching televisión. Their sleeping space is downstairs in the basement área, remodeled to partition off sleeping spaces with beds and closets for the residents. There is a certain lack of privacy because none of the "rooms" has a door. While we were there, one resident was watching televisión - her own set, Mrs. I iren points out - and I íting. One resident was in I Jed, trying to sleep while the I )verhead light was switched I n and the washing machine I vas going in the I iff laundry room, also without I i door, just a few feet away. And one resident was I aring for bed and was in a I tate of undress, as we I d through,, leaving both the I 'oman and this reporter in a I tate of mild embarrassment I tUmntrusion.