Keystone Human Services - Comprehensive community based mental retardation, mental health, autism and early intervention services

The Keystone Times

Fall 2008

Letter from the President

Dear Friends,

In a world that continues to change more rapidly than ever before, each of us is drawn to the touch stones of friends, family, work and home. Our work at Keystone is helping and encouraging individuals and families to find these opportunities in their own lives. It is easy to believe that families with a loved one experiencing autism or mental retardation are unique or that a person struggling with severe depression or other mental illness is really different from us. The truth is that every family, in their life time, will be touched by autism, intellectual disability (mental retardation), mental illness or physical disability. This truth casts our work in a humbling context, for our task is to help people find friends, family, health, work and home even when challenged with a significant disabling condition.

We hear much about long term care as our population ages. The reality is that “long term care,” in its common usage applied to nursing home care, is usually for less than 18 months. In contrast, our work is frequently and more accurately “life time care” and can be required for decades that can reach a life span of sixty or seventy years.

Few words resonate more poignantly than those expressed by anguished parents who ask; “What will happen to my son or daughter when I am gone?” This is a real and understandable fear for families with a loved one who is very vulnerable because of a disability and the issue of life time care is always a compelling question. Many families are choosing to answer this question by partnering with organizations that will be there for the long term proving support to their family member.

As I have had the honor of visiting and photographing families across the world, I am deeply moved to learn again and again what each family and each individual really wants is their own little piece of the earth, a small place where they can live, grow and hopefully be secure.

The collective work of Keystone is to bring a system of organized caring and support to the reality of disability within our society, within our community and within our own families helping each person find a small piece of earth they can experience as home.

All of us associated with Keystone shoulder a great responsibility to build a vibrant and enduring organization that has the vision, capacity and resources necessary to honor such significant needs and commitments.

In response to the commitment we have made to thousands of individuals and their families, Keystone has developed a series of eight Strategic Directives that we believe will guide us on this path. (See KHS Unveils Strategic Directives)

Our work resonates at the core of the human experience and remains both enduring and universal. In this time of great change and great need, we believe these eight Strategic Directives will serve us well in our Mission of “Advancing the Human Spirit.”

Dennis Felty