Does anyone know what a group home is like?

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Ive been thinking for a long time if I should stay in a group home. I wonder if I would hate it or not. I tried looking online but couldnt find much about what group homes are like. Anyone know anything about group homes?

I suggest you avoid one at all costs if you are able to. The stigma associated with them could carry with you for your entire life. Attempt to solve your problems through less potentially damaging ways first before resorting to that.

I don't think group homes are terrible, but I have never lived in one, so I can't be sure. Group homes are better than some of the other alternatives out there, in my opinion.

Do you have trouble with things like cleaning and cooking? Or paying your bills? If you do, then I might consider a group home.

If you're okay with these, I wouldn't consider a group home.

My grandma works at one. And from what I see of it. It doesn't look that bad. But personally would rather live on my own and do my own things since I'm probably capable enough to pay my bills and keep my house clean.

I lived in one. If you can care for yourself, live on your own. Living with other people in that kind of environment comes with all kinds of complications. Worst of which, IMO, is you can't choose your roommates. Well, or maybe not being able to get away from other people? I like the solitude of my own home.

I moved into a group home when I was 21. If I had known just what it was going to be like I would have stayed as far away from one as possible. But it would be over a decade before my diagnosis with Asperger's and I had no where else to live. Stuck with 10 other people, most of whom suffered from chronic schizophrenia, with next to no privacy, having to share a bedroom, being told every day when to get up, when to eat, what to eat, when to bathe or shower, and when to do chores. We had to do all kinds of chores every day because with that many people in one house keeping the place clean was something of a miracle. Some of the residents would scream and swear at their hallucinations from their bedrooms. I shared a bedroom with a woman who constantly played music full of swearing and racist, sexist lyrics very loudly. And the germs and viruses that ran rampant all year long. I would get a cold at least every other month. The indoor second-hand smoking didn't help, either. There were residents with really bad bronchitis coughing horribly but they still smoked. In fact the staff practically encouraged them to smoke -indoors- because supposedly the nicotine helps to relieve schizophrenia symptoms.

You're not in control of anything, and I was once told I should be commended for actually living in a group home.

The one good thing about it was that I now had more freedom and independence outside the home because I now lived in the city. The fact that I could come and go whenever I pleased (as long as I let the staff know) is probably what kept me sane. And I only had to stay there for a year. Afterwards I was moved to a home with only two other residents and one staff, and had my room. But my problems didn't end, of course. It didn't help that they were constantly moving people and staff in and out of different homes every year or so, so I'd have to get used to a new location, new house, new everything... and they told me that's how it is and I needed to get over it.

If you're able to live alone or at least one or two other people you actually get along REALLY well with, stay away from group homes.

I feel like a visual representation of a group home will give you an idea. Here is a documentary about a group home for people with Prader-Willi Syndrome. It is likely somewhat similar to a group home for individuals on the spectrum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKCL2O0NfXg

I remember when the last small options home I lived in had a staff who would do nothing but talk on the phone all day and night. IT would be grocery day and we NEEDED to get food, but she was supposed to take one of us out to do the grocery shopping. We couldn't go alone and we had no money, the staff kept it locked up. But she would talk on the phone for hours on end and she said it was important. More important than getting food, I guess. And a staff that I really did like and saw as something of a big sister left one day and I never saw her again. It happened before and I was sick of it. And then my sleeping got really bad. And my rages got really bad. Everything got really bad...

I did feel bad for the staff sometimes, though. Being stuck in a house all day having to write down everything that happened and watch over everything with hardly anything to do except watch TV.

As I've said, you want to avoid going to a group home at all costs. Self-help skills can be learned in other less humiliating, traumatic and potentially life-long damaging ways. What could become of your self-esteem?

Q: Does anyone know what a group home is like?
A: Chaotic, from my one short experience three decades ago.

I just don't see how there is any benefit of a group home to a person of sound intellect and physical ability. The stigma associated with one can follow you for the rest of your life. When solving problems you always want to take the easiest approach first before resorting to such drastic measures. They are to be avoided like the plague they are.

Wow didnt know they were that bad. Maybe some are better than others.

I knew 2 childhood friends of mine that are in group homes. And while one one of them does work for a living for the most part the other is totally out to lunch. Group homes I feel are like institutions where feelings are repressed and growth is stunted because despite being able to work in some cases, complete freedom is still very scarce. I mean you're living with 3 or 4 other people possibly for the rest of your life and once you get in the group home its very hard to get out. If you can avoid it at all costs, my folks never put me in a group home and they could have done the same thing as everyone else on that note but they didn't want me institutionalized like that.