Who we serve
At Omelagah, Inc. we provide community-based support services for adults with developmental disabilities in Northern California. We help adults with disabilities succeed in their home communities instead of institutional settings.
We are best know for successfully supporting individuals with developmental disabilities with complex needs. Individuals with complex needs, are individuals with developmental disabilities who need a high level of support in their daily life for a combination of serious physical, behavioral, metal health and social needs. Individuals served may include:
– Individuals with behavioral challenges.
– Individuals with a history of homelessness.
– Individuals with a history of hospitalization.
– Individuals with a mental health diagnosis.
– Individuals struggling with substance use.
– Individual with a history of trauma including abuse or neglect.
– Individuals with a history of involvement in the criminal justice system (forensic).
– Individuals who were unsuccessful in other living arrangements and have a hard time finding services.
Using a trauma-informed, person-centered approach, our goal is to help each individual we serve, achieve their preferred futures and live a productive life in the least restrictive community setting. .
Since our agency was founded in 2010, our collective work has improved the lives of many people with developmental disabilities. We take pride in creating opportunities for people where there was once no clear path.
See the links below for a peak at some of our work over the years.
What is a developmental disability?
The term developmental disability refers to a severe and chronic disability that is attributable to a mental or physical impairment that begins before an individual reaches adulthood. These disabilities include intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism, and disabling conditions closely related to intellectual disability or requiring similar treatment.
See below for more information on each development disability.
Intellectual Disability
Intellectual Disability is characterized by significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning (i.e., an IQ of approximately 70 or below) with concurrent deficits or impairments in adaptive functioning.
Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral Palsy includes two types of motor dysfunction: (1) nonprogressive lesion or disorder in the brain occurring during intrauterine life or the perinatal period and characterized by paralysis, spasticity, or abnormal control of movement or posture, such as poor coordination or lack of balance, which is manifest prior to two or three years of age, and (2) other significant motor dysfunction appearing prior to age 18.
Autism
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder with multiple causes or origins. It is defined as a syndrome causing gross and sustained impairment in social interaction and communication with restricted and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities that appear prior to the age of three. Specific symptoms may include impaired awareness of others, lack of social or emotional reciprocity, failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level, delay or absence of spoken language and abnormal nonverbal communication, stereotyped and repetitive language, idiosyncratic language, impaired imaginative play, insistence on sameness (e.g., nonfunctional routines or rituals), and stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms.
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is defined as recurrent, unprovoked seizures.
Other Developmental Disabilities
Other Developmental Disabilities are those handicapping conditions similar to that require treatment (i.e., care and management) similar to that required by individuals with intellectual disability. This does not include handicapping conditions that are solely psychiatric or physical in nature. The handicapping conditions must occur before age 18, result in a substantial handicap, be likely to continue indefinitely, and involve brain damage or dysfunction. Examples of conditions might include intracranial neoplasms, degenerative brain disease or brain damage associated with accidents.
For an individual to be assessed in California as having a developmental disability, the disability must begin before the individual’s 18th birthday, be expected to continue indefinitely and present a substantial disability. For more information on individuals with developmental disabilities, please visit:http://www.dds.ca.gov