Our Clients Are at the Heart of All We Do
PCS strives to offer effective and efficient support to adults with disabilities and elders living in Dane County by helping them achieve a self-directed life in community settings. To make sure we are providing the quality services our clients need, we administer an annual quality assurance survey. We are proud to say the average approval rating from those we surveyed is 9.2 on a 10-point scale.
PCS goes above and beyond to make sure that our son and many other adults like him in Dane County get the best out of their lives despite the difficulties they face! I have met many other people through their efforts!” – Mel and Cathy Yasick, Parents and Legal Guardians
Jeremy
Jeremy is a young man, who at the age of 22, moved out of his family’s home and into his own home with residential support. Jeremy has complex medical and behavioral needs, struggling with high anxiety and managing multiple chronic health issues. Finding the perfect residential match took time and creativity. Jeremy lives in a 2-bed Adult Family Home, thriving in the high-structured, highly consistent environment. This move and ongoing support model has worked well for Jeremy due to creative planning and collaboration from his team. Jeremy has a great 5-day a week community job and a separate residential agency that manages his medical and some social/recreational needs. Besides work, Jeremy gets out in the community multiple times a week and is very active in water-skiing, Special Olympics, GiGi’s Playhouse and other community events.
Jeremy’s residential support model with having both an Adult Family Home and a separate residential agency is highly unconventional, but it works well for Jeremy. His PCS staff were innovative in problem solving how to best meet Jeremy’s needs by fostering good team communication and coordinating his services.
The PCS staff was able to think outside of the box and find respite services from two separate providers which allows him both community involvement and peer connection. In addition to his paid supports, Jeremy has very dedicated parents that work hard on his behalf, working with his providers to make sure Jeremy’s needs are met. Jeremy is truly an example of how the combination of both paid and family supports with some creative planning lead can allow someone to live a very full life. Jeremy is happy, healthy, and safe all possible with his great, supportive team.
Janie
PCS has worked with Janie for the past six years. When we first met Janie, she was living at home with a rare disability. She wasn’t able to communicate clearly and having difficulty regulating her mood. She had a very limited social circle and felt isolated.
Through the years of working with Janie, the PCS staff has helped her find resources in the community for stress management and she now participates in a meditation class which has significantly helped her ability to control her stress/anger
PCS helped Janie become more of a self-advocate by connecting her with a Communication Development Program. She now has an app on her iPad that allows her to communicate when she is not physically able to do so.
As family changes occurred, PCS helped Janie with her benefits after her father retired by giving information on MAPP and ABLE accounts as well as information on Medicaid Rules and asset limits.
Janie has created new friendships while PCS staff helped her renew old friendships.
Janie and her family have had a long term goal of Janie moving out on her own. After three years of looking for the right roommate, Janie will be moving into her own apartment with a roommate this August!
James
James is a vibrant, energetic middle aged man with a fantastic sense of humor who began working with Progressive Community Services (PCS) in July of 2013. When PCS first began working with James he was living in his family home, socially isolated and not working in or involved with the community. James struggled with anger (both verbal and physical) in his home and was in need of being connected with various resources in hopes of increasing his quality of life. PCS connected James with the TIES program to help with behavior and crisis planning. The use of this services proved invaluable as they were able to work alongside PCS staff to help navigate some of the behavior challenges that were occurring and help work to find both reasoning for the behavior and appropriate responses for when it occurred. The TIES program developed a police plan so that local enforcement was aware of James, his needs and how to best respond if an emergency occurred. The team also helped James navigate the legal system as he was in need of court intervention to help with the removal of certain stressors from his everyday life. PCS was present throughout all court proceedings and served as a point of contact for all involved (family, county workers, law enforcement and crisis resources). PCS advocated for James to have increased residential and vocational assistance and helped James with identifying, meeting and establishing services with chosen providers. James was able to safely move from the family home and begin exploring his independence in his own place.
Additionally, PCS alongside James’ residential team, helped establish care with a full medical team of providers and assisted at all appointments, allowing James to have reliable medical care, medication management which inevitably improved anger management, physical health and independence. The medical team included a counselor that was familiar with his disability and was able to help offer support to James throughout legal proceedings and changes in his life.
James is now doing fantastic. He has lived in his current home since 2016 and has utilized the same residential and vocational providers throughout that time. James works in the community 3 days a week, at the same job since the beginning of 2016. He receives rave reviews from his employer. James lives alone with come in support and now participates in grocery shopping, meal planning and some cooking. James attends the gym several times a week, participates in his local church, enjoys attending concerts, sporting events and taking vacations independently out of state to visit much loved family. There have been no instances of physical aggression since moving to his new home and James self-reports how happy he is with his team and the support he has in his daily life. The team work, communication, consistency and resource development of James’ team alongside the perseverance and hard work of James has allowed his world to expand dramatically. James and his team cannot wait to see what happens next in life for James; his future is very bright!