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LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com Children of St. Martha School students are once again "Blankets of Hope" ambassadors, now for the 4th year
A Matter of Perspective: Looking forward to Our Place
By Jeff Symes
Phil Desmond recalls a terrifying thought a year ago, when the COVID-19 pandemic had just begun its march across the county: “I remember feeling so emotional talking to Jan, thinking – what if we were taken by COVID-19 today?”
Rather than an existential fear for himself and his wife, Janette, the focus of Desmond’s alarm was what would happen to their son, Dan, who was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2. Now 29, Dan lives with his parents in Portsmouth, one of the more than 762,000 people with intellectual-developmental disabilities (IDD) living in the home of a family member and receiving long-term supports and services (LTSS). The number represents more than 60 percent of the total who received Medicaid or state-funded LTSS. That’s according to the most recent estimates from the Residential Information Systems Project (RISP) in 2017.