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Amazing new Respite Care and Day Program in Riverton

I had the opportunity this weekend to check out Bear-O Care, a new business venture of Michael and Ruth Braga.  They realized that there are few options for respite in the community and even less options where siblings can stay with their special needs child.  With their son Brandon (age 17 with Autism) nearing completion from High School, they also wanted an adult day program that would cater to his needs.

The mission of Bear-O Care is to "provide a unique community approach to caring for individuals with multiple disabilities.  By including and collaborating with families, caregivers, and educators.they will provide a safe, supportive environment that maintains and builds upon the abilities and communication methods used by each individual."

They plan to begin with their day program for those individuals age 18 and up.  They will run from 9 AM to 3 PM, Monday thru Friday for 46 weeks per year.  They have a physical therapy and occupational therapy room, a recreation room, a cafeteria and crafts room along with adaptive restrooms.  There is also a sensory / cool off room for those who might need a little quiet time.  There will be 2 adults per room at all times, including the restroom for those clients needing assistance.

Respite care will be available on Friday and Saturday nights from 6 to 9 PM.  Unlike other programs, they will take in siblings ages 6 - 17 years old along with the client.  They plan to cap the total number of children as follows:

15 children with special needs
20 siblings (without special needs)

for a total of 35 children.

There will be nursing on staff to handle feeding tubes and trach care.

Bear-O Care is located at 2464 West 12600 South Suite 180, Riverton, UT 84065.  Their phone is (801) 419-4731.  They will be opening a location in Lehi this year.

While they are pending final approval to open and for their nonprofit status to be complete, they are still looking for many items.  Those items can be found at http://www.bearocare.org/#!donate/c1ghi

Utah Kids Foundation looks forward to partnering with Bear-O Care for future events!

~ Syndi

Utah Kids Foundation - Kid of the Month - January 2016

Zachary 9 years old, has had many issues since 2 weeks old. He had projectile vomiting and wasn't gaining weight they initially diagnosed him with a milk intolerance and then added soy but he continued to vomit so they ran every other test possible. Come to find out the daycare he was at was not paying attention and was feeding him milk the entire time therefore damaging his intestines possibly permanently. We left at 15 months and he was starting to get better. He also wasnt talking and add a year old we found out that he had a lot of hearing loss from ear infections . When we took him out of the take care of 15 months we also put tubes in his ears and by 18 months he was talking. He has been fine developmentally since then he's just very small and has had failure to thrive. He has had sensory issues and anxiety issues since two years old . at nine years old now it looks like they are going to add a diagnosis of cyclic vomiting syndrome.

Zachary loves legos and a shirt join the lego league at school in is doing well there he also likes to dance doing hip-hop and half and perform this question these are both really good thing for his social anxiety.

He has Milk soy Protien Intolerance, Sensory Processing Disorder, Failure to Thrive, Severe Food Allergies, OCD, ADHD, anxiety and depression, also medically induced PTSD. He was just diagnosed with cyclic vomiting syndrome possibly needing a feeding tube. 

We got a service dog for Lucas last year and he is doing great. Then our dog was attacked she was unable to work and we had to retire her. Zachary has had some regression since then. A friend gifted us a dog and he is great but needs additional training. We are working on getting training for the dog. And Lucas seems to be doing well with any sort of animal.