Earlier this month, The Arc of Mobile County, an advocacy group focused on supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, announced that it would try to build day care options for Mobile residents, after the pandemic and other factors have left gaps in care for the vulnerable population.

“We’re looking at, we the Arc of Mobile County, we’re a new advocacy group, we’re trying to help those 100-plus families get the services back, so their parent or sibling or whoever is at home can go back to work,” Thomas Holmes, board president of the Arc of Mobile County said. Holmes has an adult son with an intellectual disability.

While the Arc is still in the early stages of setting care up, on Oct. 4, Holmes appeared before the Mobile City Council to let them know of their intentions. Holmes said they are looking into becoming a certified community services provider under the Alabama Department of Mental Health, a process which can take several months.

According to the Alabama Department of Mental Health, there are 467 people in Mobile County who receive a Home and Community-based Services (HCBS) waiver for intellectual disability services, which provides Medicaid funding for care at home or in the community. There are 57 people in Mobile County who have qualified for the waiver but have yet to receive services, according to the DMH, though that number also includes people waiting on elderly care or other disability care.

The onset of the coronavirus pandemic caused day programs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to be shuttered across the country, but in Mobile, changes to intellectual disability care models has left continued gaps in the system, Holmes says.