Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 28, 1993 TAG: 9302280132
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Southwest bureau
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
GOLF FUND-RAISER SCHEDULED
A golf tournament is scheduled March 13 to help raise money to support a program that aids families with children who are developmentally disabled or chronically ill.The Respite Care Program of the Mount Rogers Community Services Board has existed for a little more than a year, supported by businesses and others since the grant that established it ran out in September.
"Our job is, we alleviate stress," said respite-care coordinator Terri Fitzwater.
Families with children who have these problems can find themselves having to provide constant care and unable to go shopping, out to dinner or to a movie "because things that we take for granted like that are not possible for these families," she said.
"We allow families a break from their responsibilities," she said. "It's constant 24-hour care. . . . It's a quality-of-life issue."
The Captain's Choice Golf Tournament is to start at 9 a.m. at Crestview Golf Course in Ennice, N.C., off the Blue Ridge Parkway south of Galax. Registration is $20; further information is available by calling 228-2158.
The program is serving 22 families in an area covering Wythe, Bland, Carroll, Grayson and Smyth counties and the city of Galax; and there is a waiting list for more volunteer respite-care workers as they can be found.
"As the word is getting out there, more requests are coming in" at the rate of two or three families per month, Fitzwater said.
"All we help do is allocate the funding and help them get care providers," she said. The families themselves pay the providers, who can be someone already familiar with the children or someone provided through the program.
"But a lot of families can't find someone to work with a child with developmental disabilities," she said. In that case, the program will try to come up with one and provide the necessary training.
"We've been very fortunate in our matches so far," Fitzwater said. "Right now we have 21 care providers."
The program not only helps the family but the child as well, giving him or her some interaction with another adult outside the immediate family. The public is not generally aware of the kinds of problems involved.
"They don't realize that the needs are different with a child with developmental disabilities. The medical needs are different . . . and each family's needs are so individualized," Fitzwater said.
Fitzwater graduated from Bluefield State College last year with a degree in social science, and landed the coordinator's job. She works out of the Mount Rogers offices in the Wythe Shopping Plaza on East Main Street in Wytheville.
Although the project is set up to serve five counties in the region, Fitzwater said she would work with people from other areas in finding respite-care services in their parts of the state. She can be reached at 228-7750.