28 | JULY 11 • 2024
J
N
C
oming off May,
National Older
Americans Month,
JARC honored its older
adults by reaffirming its
commitment to serving
the older adults in their
communities.
Bloomfield Hills-based
nonprofit JARC, which serves
adults with developmental
disabilities in Oakland
County, strives to provide the
highest quality of direct care
services tailored to the needs
of each individual they serve.
This year, that service also
includes adapting physical
group living spaces to
accommodate the changing
needs of the people they
serve to make aging in place
possible as they experience
changing mobility and medi-
cal needs.
While not a housing agency
or a provider specifically for
older adults, JARC’s mission
includes helping to ensure the
group homes they manage
are safe, comfortable and
accessible.
Historically, people with
developmental disabilities
did not live long enough to
have mobility needs for their
senior years. For example, in
1931, the life expectancy for
people with developmental
disabilities was just 22. By
1993, it was age 66.
Most of the older adults
JARC serves came to JARC
in their 20s and 30s, healthy
and without mobility needs.
Now, these individuals are
age 60 or older. The average
life expectancy continues to
increase, and today JARC
now serves people into their
90s — an incredible success
story that provides JARC an
opportunity to assist them
with their mobility challenges.
As any senior would need
modifications to age in place,
these older adults are no
exception.
In 2021 and 2022,
JARC received generous
contributions from an
anonymous donor and the
Robert Feldstein Aging-in-
Place Accessibility Initiative
to fund the necessary changes
within three group homes
they manage, to ensure that
the adults living in those
homes can age-in-place.
The accessibility updates
will be made to three single-
story homes complete with
a step-free front entrance,
doorways and hallways wide
enough for wheelchairs, new
and safer flooring materials,
and secured handrails.
The bathrooms will include
roll-in showers, grab bars
and a removable shower seat.
Kitchen counter lengths were
JARC is Adapting
to Changing Needs
Accessibility updates to group homes
will allow older residents to age in place.
PAT BASKIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
OUR COMMUNITY
The kitchen in the Keller-
Walch Home now includes
a wheelchair-friendly sink
LEFT: A new entry ramp at
JARC’s Keller-Walch Home
replaces stairs down from the
front door. RIGHT: Renovated
cabinets in the kitchen on the
Collins Home have new low
cabinets that are more easily
accessible for wheelchair-
users and all residents.