Life on Farm Is a Step Toward Independence : Developmentally Disabled Adults Learn to Go It Alone

RAMONA —  His hopes and plans don’t sound that different from those of any other 21-year-old. He wants to graduate, get a job and talks of marriage someday to his girlfriend, Anne.

But for Jim Carteron, these goals, while attainable, will not come easily. Carteron is considered developmentally disabled and is one of 6,500 adults registered as such with San Diego Regional Center for the Developmentally Disabled.

Carteron lives with 10 other residents at Laddi Farm, a residential-academic facility for developmentally disabled adults (18 to 64) designed to help them reach a goal of semi-independent living and part-time work. Laddi Farm is outside of Ramona, surrounded by trees, cactuses and hills.

It is unique both because of its setting and because it contains a residence and a school, according to Carol Fitzgibbons of the Regional Center, which funds and monitors programs.

“Most clients live in residential facilities and go to programs in the community. They don’t live in the academic setting. There is not another program like it.”

In addition, according to the Regional Center, no other educational program for the developmentally disabled in San Diego focuses on academic skills like Laddi Farm does. Most are vocationally oriented.

The center defines developmental disability as mental retardation, cerebral palsy, autism or other conditions similar to retardation. These conditions must have originated before age 18 and constitute a substantial handicap that is likely to continue indefinitely.

Staff at Laddi Farm say most residents were born with their disability. Others were abused children or were injured in accidents.

Carteron has been at Laddi Farm for two years, and for more than a year has worked part-time at a gas station in Ramona.

“I came up here to learn independence . . . to learn to live on my own. It’s a good place to make friends, too. I have a girlfriend here, and when I graduate, we’ll get married.”

Carteron said he was in another school before coming to Laddi Farm. “All we did were games and puzzles. Here I’m learning independent thinking.”

Indeed, the goal at Laddi Farm is to prepare its students for participation in society.

Carteron’s mother, Shirley, recently attended the graduation of two students. “It was a wonderful experience--emotional. All the parents were there. It was fascinating.”

Graduation Goals

The goals for graduation at Laddi Farm are twofold, according to Lee Dobrowolski, one of two academic instructors at the school.

“First, a student needs to meet several academic requirements, including writing, reading comprehension, math, career education and development of self-concept. In addition, they are trained in survival skills, including first aid (and how to place) a 911 phone call,” Dobrowolski said.

“It’s a comprehensive program. Residence training includes cooking skills, menu planning and household care. After that the student needs to maintain a job in the community which pays more than minimum wage for at least 90 days and be able to get to and from the work independently. He must also have saved $1,000.”

When a student is ready for independent living, Dobrowolski finds the student an apartment, and for three months he visits three times a week to see how the student is doing.”

“Most . . . never had to deal with life, he said. They’ve been institutionalized and need help in developing their self-concept and living skills,” Dobrowolski said.

“They can stay with us until they reach their goals. One student has been here for five years, and this is the first year he’s made eye contact. Now he’s working at a market in Ramona . . . and doing well.”

Nick Arellano, 27, recently graduated, has a job as dishwasher and lives independently in Escondido. “He’s doing fine and is almost completely finished with our program,” Dobrowolski said.

Will they all make it?

“We try. It’s our goal. We think they are capable,” Dobrowolski said. “If they want to leave, they can give us 30 days’ notice, and vice versa. And if we feel this place is not appropriate for a student, we also give them 30 days’ notice.”

Andrew Lynn is 24. He has red hair and a beard and seems well-spoken, educated and polite.

“Andrew is very intelligent, but half of him is gone,” Dobrowolski said. Some days he can’t even find his seat . . . on other days he’ll give me two pages of poetry that are perfect, or tell me about a planet and how it was formed.”

At 17, Lynn graduated from high school in Brawley with honors. A month later he suffered brain damage in a motor scooter accident.

The youth was flown from Brawley to University Hospital and then spent five months in Children’s Hospital. For a month after the accident he was in a coma. “He’s come farther than we expected. It was six months before he could walk and talk,” his father, Samuel Lynn, said.

Lynn’s parents brought him to Laddi Farm the day after Thanksgiving in 1983.

“It was distressing to let someone else care for our handicapped son, but it was best for him, and for us.”

“I love this place,” said Lynn, “because of the people--and the academics.”

Lori Mahr is 22. She is pretty, with dark short hair. Her room is full of stuffed toys--and a whole herd of small pastel horses with manes the colors of a soft rainbow. A Special Olympics cap hangs on her wall, “with signatures of movie stars,” she said.

Mahr’s dream is to graduate soon, as her boyfriend Nick Arellano, just did.

“I want to get out, too, live independently, but I’m just not ready yet,” said Mahr, who has been at Laddi for 4 years. She hopes to work as a housekeeper or cashier.

Out in Community

Laddi Farm, privately owned and licensed by the state, is one of 300 residential facilities for developmentally disabled adults in San Diego County (excluding children’s facilities).

“It is important for the residents to be out in the community, rather than be in one setting,” said Fitzgibbons, of the San Diego Regional Center.

To fulfill this need to deal with the outside world, the Laddi Farm residents do their laundry in town, grocery shop, go bowling once a week, and three now have jobs in Ramona. The more independent ones can sign out after school hours and go into town by calling Ramona’s public transportation service.

Regional Center social worker Lori Robinson looks out for the welfare of her clients who live at Laddi Farm. “At least once a month I go to Laddi Farm to talk with the residents there. I see if they are happy and (check on) their overall development.”

Robert Langsdale, a former special education teacher, is director of the facility, and one of seven staffers. The two instructors who teach the students five days a week cover such topics as comparison shopping, nutrition, writing and vocabulary, reading comprehension, money skills, career education and interpersonal relationships.

Four resident caretakers (two during the week, and two on the weekends) assist in teaching residents hygiene, grooming, cooking, sewing, basic household care, banking, menu planning and shopping, and utilization of community services (library, police, hospitals, Social Security).

Said Langsdale, “We want them to learn to live independently and to do it appropriately. This is comparable to a junior college for developmentally disabled adults.

“They do their own cooking here, menu planning, and it has to fit in the budget.

“Some parents are unable to control the individual behaviors--and in a way it’s like learning to drive. It’s easier for the kid to go to driving school than for the parents to teach that.

“The people here are very functional, and some have gone through public schools. The I.Q. average is between 50 and 70, which is considered borderline. They are very capable individuals.

“I don’t consider these guys to be retarded. They have learning disabilities. They are here to learn how to deal with it and cope with it, and learn what they are capable of learning.

“Sometimes people say to me it must take patience to work here, but it doesn’t take as much patience as you might think. We have patience if someone is having a difficult time learning something, but we don’t have patience for acting out or trying to manipulate. We try to be normal in relation to residents. If we wouldn’t accept certain behavior from a normal person, we don’t accept it from them. It’s helpful to know when to have patience and when it’s OK not to have it.”

Learning Critical Skills

Julie Valleco has been teaching at Laddi Farm since it opened in June, 1982.

“The facility was originally academically based,” she said, “but the emphasis now is on critical skills and survival skills.

“There has been a major turnaround in society as far as this population goes. It used to be they (the mentally disabled) lived at home, ended up in state hospitals. There was no place for them. But expectations have changed. There is a push now for these people to be contributing members of society.

“The interesting thing is that since we are pushing them, the clients have done more. They have met goals they set for themselves, and met the speculations placed on them.

“A lot of students think they can’t do it, because the general population doesn’t expect it. The more you expect from them, the more they can do. When you believe in them, they believe in themselves.

“It’s disappointing for them when they come across people in public who feel uneasy around them. There are still a lot of people who don’t know how to respond.

“We run into this when we are looking for jobs for the students. Some employers are afraid they’ll lose business, but if these students are given a chance, the students improve their social skills.”

The biggest obstacle, according to Valleco, is finding employment. “We need to find people receptive to the students--willing to work with them and with us. A lot of times these individuals turn out to be the most faithful of employees.”

Valleco finds her work at Laddi Farm rewarding. “You get to watch progress. I remember when Lori came. She had a lot of interfering behaviors--poor impulse control, anger, lashing out, temper. She didn’t recognize others had needs. Now she thinks of others--does for them.

“The most difficult area is that of interpersonal relations, to see the other’s side, to not act impulsively, to try to learn to solve the problem in a logical manner. We help them see there are options and consequences.

“Jim’s (Carteron) done a lot in the last year. He’s taken more responsibility--taken charge of his life. He’s gotten high out of that. It’s such an ego booster. He’s even been to Wisconsin and New York to visit relatives recently.”

Special Affinity

Resident caretakers feel a special affinity for the students at Laddi Farm and bring their own personal interests to their task of interaction with the clients.

Claude Smith, a musician and artist from Julian, is a weekend caretaker. He has interacted with at least one resident by encouraging him in his artwork. “I get a chance,” said Smith, “an opportunity to have an effect on people, to help make decisions in their best interests.”

Bill Holloway, in his 70s, is also a weekend caretaker. Said Holloway, “I get attached to those kids. I can’t always tell what I can do to change things for them. There are things you can’t put into their thinking. But they all tell me their personal stories--and some are really sad. There’s been mistreatment for many of them.

“I took them to the parade of lighted boats. We built a big bonfire, and some people came to join us around the fire. Then when the other people found out about these kids, a lot of them left us.”

Holloway is a songwriter and a piano player. “When I play the piano for them, they love to sing the old war songs, like one I call “Reenlistment Blues.” Some of the boys wish they could be in the Army.”

Dobrowolski said, “We’ve come a long way from just warehousing. Many students before they came here were sheltered, structured--and we didn’t want that. We’re here to help, not to do it for them.

“Their lives are like ours, only more intense. This is almost like working with new people. They have a lot of hostility when we get them. They were never trained like independent people. It’s important for them to feel and experience what so-called normal people do.”

Valleco added, “The students here want to do what you want them to do. They want to please--to be like everybody else.”