ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
A growing number of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) want more personalized services in a smaller setting.
Recent data shows 24/7 shared living services often improve people’s physical health, bring greater mental and emotional well being, offer more enriching relationships and give them more choices for where they live and with whom.
All of these happen through the non-profit Mosaic in Southwest Kansas with their shared living support service, Mosaic at Home, one of its most popular and growing support service lines.
Mosaic Director Janeth Trevizo said through the service, people with IDD share a home with a Mosaic independent host home provider, also called a contractor, who helps the person become an active member of the household and the greater community.
“Shared living is something the whole state of Kansas is offering,” she said. “Those who are able to provide that service have to go through state to be able to initiate that service line. We have gone through what we need to do with the state to be able to provide shared living.”
Trevizo said shared living has shown promise in other states such as Colorado and Arizona.
“Since it’s available for us to provide that service here in Kansas, we wanted to take that opportunity to grow and to be innovative,” she said. “Right now, we’re struggling to find home providers because it’s such a new service line, but we are hopeful with our value of faithfulness, we are going to be all in with shared living. We believe it’s the best model to provide individualized services. Once that became available to Kansas, we wanted to jump on it.”
To meet the growing desire for shared living services, Trevizo added Mosaic is actively expanding Mosaic at Home – which has been offered for more than 30 years in some markets – in Kansas and across the non-profit’s 13-state network.
“Right now, we have 13 people in Mosaic at Home, and we actually have two individuals from Liberal who are now in Mosaic at Home too,” she said. “For us to be completely out of group home settings in Garden City, we need 10 more home providers, and for Liberal for us to be out of the 24-hour group home setting, we need 11 more home providers. We are right on track on our goals to transition our 24-hour services to Mosaic at Home.”
The Mosaic at Home model has already shown success in Garden City, where Debbie Reynolds serves 72-year-old Dorothy Timmons and 46-year-old Erin Williams in her home.
Reynolds said one can physically see both women’s lives have positively changed from when they began living with her. Timmons moved in with Reynolds in 2017, and Williams joined the household one year later. Both have their own bedrooms with en suite baths.
“I knew Dorothy before she moved in, and during that time, she often expressed she wanted to live with me,” Reynolds said. “She was only 8 when she was placed in an institution, and she wasn’t released until the 1980s. Dorothy’s first pleasure trip with me after she moved in, she and I went on a driving vacation to Colorado Springs; I wanted to give her that experience. She kept asking me, ‘are we going to Norton? Are we going to Parsons?’ I didn’t understand why she was asking these questions until it dawned on me she probably only rode in a car with her suitcase and her medications when she was being transferred to another institution.”
Reynolds said Timmons was entirely dependent and in a wheelchair when she came to live with her.
“I got an occupational therapist to work with her to get her out of that wheelchair into a walker for increased mobility,” Reynolds said. “She loves the weekday Mosaic seniors day services program, now that she can participate in most of their activities such as working on arts and crafts, shopping, going out to eat (Mexican food is her favorite) and making destination day trips.”
Also with her increased mobility, Timmons’s love of animals has come in the form of fully taking care of a female cat named Brady, who sleeps by her side at night.
Like Timmons, Reynolds knew Williams before she moved in with her. Beforehand, Reynolds said Williams was diagnosed with depression. She would sleep in her room most of the day and didn’t want to secure a job, for which she was truly capable. Her self-care was lacking as well.
“When Erin moved in, she had a big knot of hair on the back of her head – she never combed it. I thought it was a manifestation of her depression in not wanting to take care of herself,” Reynolds said. “I booked an appointment for her at a salon, and she loved it so much she saves up five dollars a week in order to see the same stylist every six.”
Reynolds said Williams has also blossomed into a bit of a social butterfly. “Being in a Mosaic at Home residential service she gets a lot of freedom, and she can handle it. She wants to be ‘normal.’
“Erin has held jobs in our area, but unfortunately, her recent Parkinson’s diagnosis has impeded her from working. But, she still gets out. In addition to going to Mosaic’s day services workshop, Erin has become part of the community. She can independently walk wherever she wants, such as to Walgreens and McDonald’s, and I take her shopping on the occasional weekend. She has her friends, manages her budget to go to the annual Silver Sage Renaissance Festival — the planners there actually know her well — and loves technology,” Reynolds said. “If she really wants to learn something, she will figure it out. Being in a Mosaic at Home host residence gives her a lot of freedoms, and she can handle them.”
Reynolds said those considering being a shared living provided need to be committed.
“Although Dorothy and Erin go to day services, it’s a 24-hour, seven days a week commitment,” she said. “Like any caregiver position, it sometimes can be a thankless job. But, it’s very life-fulfilling: You are making a difference in that person’s life and giving them experiences they never had or probably would never have had. Some of my friends don’t understand what I do and why I do it. But I firmly believe what you give in this life, you will get back.”
Trevizo shared another success story, this time from Liberal with Mosaic at Home client Arturo Jimenez.
“He’s also done the wrestling with the Rec Center,” she said. “He moved from Hugoton to Liberal to be in a 24-hour setting, and now, he’s in Mosaic at Home.”
Trevizo said Jimenez is now more independent than when he first employed Mosaic’s services.
“We’ve seen his life change before our eyes,” she said. “He went from having a difficult time with his family, and we provided some support to the family to be able provide him services. He moved to Liberal so he could have continuity of care, and when he lived here, he lived in an apartment setting.”
In his former group home setting, much of Jimenez’s support such as cooking and cleaning was done by Mosaic workers, but now under the care of provider Anna Silvia, he has now become more intergraded into the community.
“They go out to a soccer league,” Trevizo said. “They’re a big sports family, which Arturo is as well. It really helps to transition that. Now he’s able to participate in all those things in a very organic way. It’s not planned out. It’s become his life versus having to make that schedule to make those things happen.”
Trevizo said Mosaic at Home provides more freedom and flexibility for both clients and workers to do things they enjoy.
“It’s not just constrained to providing services for eight to 12-hour shifts, making sure you’re passing medication for four individuals,” she said. “Now, you can dedicate your time as a home provider to just one individual and receive good compensation for it.”
Trevizo said this is the beauty of the shared living model.
“You’re able to not just benefit the person in service, but we’ve also seen a huge impact on the home providers,” she said. “A lot of their stories share how they can’t imagine not doing Mosaic at Home because of how much it’s brought to their life, more meaningful activities for them.”
Trevizo said even individuals in retirement have decided to take part in Mosaic at Home.
“There’s companionship in this,” she said. “Some younger individuals can go back to school because they’re able to afford it and be able to have the flexibility of working at home and being able to go to school during the day while they’re in day services. There’s just a lot more flexibility and independence with it for the individual and the home provider.”
Those interested in Mosaic at Home as an independent provider or as a service for someone with IDD can contact Cassandra Dinkel, Independent Contractor Program Supervisor, at
