St. Mary's Reopens Program For Young Adults With Disabilities

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — Last March, when Teresa Amodio’s daughter, Michelle, was sent home from the medical day care program for young adults with disabilities at St. Mary's Hospital for Children, Amodio said the changes in her behavior were “horrible.”

“She became self injurious, she couldn’t sleep at night, she was hitting herself,” Amodio told Patch, adding that she and her husband spent months taking their 25-year-old daughter, who has autism, to different specialists in order to find a solution to the behaviors to no avail.

That all changed when St. Mary’s day program reopened this week, and Michelle returned for the first time since the program closed at the start of the pandemic 14 months ago.

“It’s been such a relief, such a joy to see her back to what she normally was. It’s only been three days, but she has already been sleeping well, and has a good demeanor, and is just so happy” said Amodio.

St. Mary’s runs the only pediatric program of this kind in the state, but since it is regulated like an adult nursing home it had to close its doors last year when programs for seniors did.

Michelle, who at the time had been attending the program for seven years, tried to participate in some of St. Mary’s Zoom options and had sessions with different therapists, but it didn’t compare to the constant care that she’d been receiving at the program.

“She has recreation, she sees people, she does tasks there,” explained Amodio of the day care, adding that she thinks her daughter’s behavioral responses to the program closing was similar to children and adults who faced challenges not being with their classmates and co-workers, respectively.

“It affected her in the same way only her reaction was different because she can't express it in words,” said Amodio.

And Michelle isn’t alone. When the program closed, many other young adult participants found themselves without its constant care, therapy, and socialization, which caused “significant physical decline in our patients,” wrote Program Director Allison McGeough in a news release about the program’s reopening.

“We know our families have been patiently waiting as they’ve struggled to keep everything afloat,” McGeough said in the release, adding that the program is “excited to be back together again to help everyone reach their fullest potential.”

The day care reopened this Monday complete with COVID safety precautions like asymptomatic screening, temperature checks, and strict PPE standards for employees.

Like Amodio, McGeough said she is “relieved” to “finally welcome clients back to our program,” which she describes as a “tight-knit community” — and Amodio agrees.

“Michelle communicates with her demeanor, and she’s always smiling when we go to pick her up. I think she considers St. Mary’s her second home,” said Amodio.

After over a year of dealing with the pandemic, and trying to find help for Michelle, Amodio says that she thinks the ultimate solution for her child “was to have this program reopen.”