Transitional Living
Phase One: Independent Living - On-Site Assessment
A significant brain injury challenges someone’s ability to reclaim their independence. Whether they are coming from the hospital, their own home or from living with family, the first step of transitioning to supported independence is an assessment, provided through our intake and assessment team. Once they are approved for service and accepted into the program, the information from the assessment will assist with setting the goals. As we learn about them, we work with the client, family, and care team to develop a transitional living plan that takes into account the challenges and accomplishments of the past and current state. This plan helps the client attain their goals in a logical manner.
Our staff is in the building 24/7 and available to provide supervision and support on a scheduled and check-in basis. The care is personalized to provide the level of support the client needs. The client has privacy but must be able to be safe in their apartment for 30 minutes at a time. An average amount of daily support is 3 to 6 hours.
The fully furnished apartment includes heat and hydro, cable, local phone and internet. The kitchen has basic items for cooking. The client will need to bring clothes, toiletries and personal items. The program provides a weekly allowance to purchase groceries, cleaning supplies and other items. Public transportation passes are included if needed.
Each individual's transitional living plan may include time-scheduled blocks for the following services:
- Wake up
- Morning medications and morning routine
- Schedule overview and meeting scheduled appointments/outings/day program
- Lunch (preparation and cleanup)
- Household cleanup
- Food preparation for supper and cleanup
- Mid-day medications
- Night time routine and night time medications
In a 24-hour period, we provide 3 to 6 hours of attendant care, including checks and service blocks. This support allows you to maximize independence and is designed to decrease over time based on progress. Should more support than 6 hours per day be required it will need to be negotiated with program management.
If the client is out in the community, our staff can continue checks through text messaging and cell phone contact 24/7. This means support is available at all times.
Phase Two: Final Skill Development
As you move through your stay, you and your team will establish which skills you need in order to transition to the community and set new goals to finish skills development.
The skills of independent living are:
Skills of independent living are:
- Medications (full support to independent)
- Personal hygiene
- Food preparation
- Daily and weekly cleaning
- Establish daily and weekly routines
- Laundry
- Scheduling and time management
- Initiation and follow through
- Budgeting, money tracking, banking
- Grocery shopping
- Safe smoking
- Responsible pet management
- Emergency and novel situation management
- Bus and other forms of public transportation training or travel management
- Substance use and mental health supports
A typical length of stay in our Transitional Living program is 6 months to 2 years.
Client and Caregiver Handbook for Transitional Living clients
Locations
78 Stanley Avenue
Kitchener, ON N2K 2B2
The Stanley Avenue apartments are located in a mostly single family home residential area. The two buildings are next to one another: One is a three story walk-up and the other has two stories. We offer fully accessible bachelor, one and two-bedroom apartments. Public transportation is available on Bridge Street, within walking distance of Stanley Ave.
165 Gordon Street
Fergus, ON N1M 0A7
The Gordon Street low-rise building is located in lovely rural Fergus, just north of Kitchener, in Wellington County. It contains one and two-bedroom apartments.
Applying for Services
Please visit our Apply for Services page to access our application forms for clients with acquired brain injuries. You can contact our ABI Intake administration at the address below for further information.
Contact Us
Traverse Independence
Head Office
1382 Weber Street East, Unit 1
Kitchener, ON, N2A 1C4
Phone: 519-741-5845
Fax: 519-741-8731
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are located on the Haldimand Tract, traditional and unceded territory of the Anishnaabe, Haudenosaunee and Neutral Peoples. It encompasses 980,000 acres of land that was given to the Six Nations in 1784, 10 kilometers on each side of the Grand River.