Retirement Services
Many older adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities prefer to participate in day activities that are typical of those that many seniors enjoy during their retirement years. JCDS retirement activity programs are structured to connect both the aging systems and disabilities networks in empowering older adults with disabilities to have full access to community services.
The retirement program is open to individuals who are over the age of 55 who are receiving services from JCDS. The retirement program is structured so participants can maintain integration in the community while benefiting from therapeutic intervention and daily on-site leisure, health and wellness, and educational activities.
The JCDS retirement program is divided into three groups:
Sage
The Sage group does primarily in-house activities that are provided along with a daily activity around Johnson County, such as volunteering with a food pantry.
Active Agers
The Active Agers group enjoy a range of daily activities such as sporting events, plays, and music therapy.
Dementia Supports
Dementia Supports includes individuals with Alzheimer’s and Dementia. Dementia Supports are provided in service areas where lighting, activities, sounds, and decorations are more conducive for success for a person with those conditions. DSPs receive specialized training in order to give the highest quality of care. Staff is offered training on compassion fatigue, coping with grief, and other issues that may arise from this specialized line of work.
Activities
Some of the activities focus on therapeutic intervention as well as involvement in normalized daily routines such as attending movies, memory retention activities, T-Bones baseball games, rodeos, and animal therapy. Opportunities to practice a range of motion and joint flexibility in gym exercise within the community for the purpose of slowing age-related losses in physical reserves in the context of a normal daily activity.
We participate in rehabilitative/habilitative leisure outing opportunities that promote community inclusion and allow individuals to contribute to community life through various volunteering sites and settings.
These include programs and organizations such as:
- Meals on Wheels
- Stroke Foundation
- Kids TLC
- KU Pediatrics
- Kansas City Hospice House
- Johnson County Library
- Shawnee Gardens
- Homestead
- Growing Futures (Head Start)
- Yearly “Adopt-a-Senior” Christmas Project
- DaVita Dialysis
Staffs provide immediate and frequent verbal encouragement, build on skills and capabilities and use repetition to promote success and positive engagement. Leisure lifestyle education is also provided on a regular basis which promotes choices and self-determination and recognizes the human qualities that exist in all older adults with lifelong developmental challenges.