Finally, someone else is taking care – a place to live for Max, who is disabled

For 20 years, Wayne and Ute C. have cared for their son Max, who was born with the hereditary disease "Fragile X Syndrome." "He is cheerful, good-natured, and humorous, but also mentally disabled. That's why we have to be very careful about what happens to him," explains the 53-year-old mother.

Ute's life, who completed her teacher training studies and lived in the USA with her husband and children for a long time, revolved almost entirely around her cognitively impaired son for a long time. When the family returned to Germany, Max was 10 years old and began attending a special needs school.

In the meantime, Max's father is working as an executive at the Bayer Group. After 12th grade, reality hit for Max as well. After an internship where Max was inadequately supervised, it became clear to Ute how difficult it would be to find a suitable job for him. Since she stayed a housewife because of Max, she was able to devote a lot of time to finding not only a training position for him but also the necessary accommodation for her son. Max is, as she says, "not yet ready for 'assisted living'," which assumes a relatively high degree of independence. At the same time, there is a lack of "residential groups" with more intensive care near the desired training location.

The desired training position "Community Eichhof," where Max is initially learning pottery in the vocational training area, which suits him and interests him, was found by his mother Ute through much personal commitment. But she reached her limits when it came to the necessary accommodation for her son. "I hit a dead end. It was emotionally exhausting to make countless phone calls over weeks and months, speaking with very nice and helpful people, all of whom said they unfortunately had no place for Max," the 53-year-old says quite frankly.

Just before despair, she confessed, Ute recalls, especially since the training positions at Eichhof filled up quickly and, in the end, only one was left. It was just right that her husband Wayne came home from the company with a brochure that explained the concept of famPlus. Whether she would like to contact the service, he suggested – and yes, that's what Ute wanted.

She picked up the phone and described her situation to the employee on the other end of the line. "They were totally sympathetic. They listened to me attentively, asked questions, and very eagerly started looking for a place to live for our son," Max's mother describes her experiences with famPlus. "What was really good was that famPlus also looked for alternatives in financing that could have covered a longer journey to the training place if necessary. And overall, it was incredibly great that someone else was taking care of us in this difficult situation and we didn't have to stand alone with this enormous task," praises Ute C. both her husband's employer and the placement service itself.

Ultimately, Ute found a place for assisted living for Max, which serves as an interim solution until a spot becomes available at the sought-after Eichhof. "And famPlus almost simultaneously came to me with exactly this solution. I actually continued searching in parallel and was pleased that we came to the same result. Not every parent would have the strength or time to research solutions so intensively over such a long period. For a single mother or a family where both parents work, this effort would certainly have been impossible," the 53-year-old summarizes the selection process.

We know some marriages with disabled children that have broken down because the parents often feel terribly abandoned and overwhelmed with the stress of schools, therapies, authorities, or institutions," says Ute very matter-of-factly, who herself can look back on 23 years of a happy and mutually supportive marriage. And yet she appreciates it very much when parents have someone actively supporting them in organizing care and when the employer covers the placement costs. This way, her husband, as an employee, has a clear head for his work and doesn't have to worry about balancing family and career – which benefits everyone.

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