Bethany Children’s Oklahoma unveils new wheelchair-accessible house
Dewayne Pollard, a former patient at Bethany Children’s Health Center, is the first to lease a specially designed, wheelchair-accessible house.
- Dewayne Pollard, a 21-year-old paralyzed after a car accident, is the first resident of a new accessible smart home built by Bethany Children’s Health Center and Iron Bison Homes.
- The “Dewayne Model” home features customized adaptations like lowered countertops, a smart stove, and automated sink, promoting Pollard’s independence.
- Pollard consulted on the home’s design, ensuring it met his specific needs and offering a blueprint for future accessible homes.
Dewayne Pollard already knew the first thing he was going to do in his newly built Bethany home — a home that has an accessible kitchen just for him.
He was going to cook tilapia with fries, or maybe even salmon.
“I just want to cook. It’s getting those things back. Tilapia is one of the first things I learned how to cook, so that’s what I want to do. Cook,” Pollard said.
The 21-year-old from Altus is the pilot resident for the Mattie Homes Project, specifically the “Dewayne Model.” This project aims to provide accessible, affordable and safe housing.
Pollard’s home is wheelchair accessible and smart-enabled to fit his needs.
The home’s development by Bethany Children’s Health Center, in partnership with Iron Bison Homes, was celebrated with a ribbon cutting on July 29.
Pollard was a patient at Bethany Children’s Health Center after a car accident six years ago in which he suffered a spinal cord injury and became paralyzed.
The center serves as the landlord, and a resident pays rent and utilities for the home at a significantly reduced rate compared to what a fully accessible home would typically cost.
Pollard said other than going to high school, he spent most of his time in bed for three years. He would go to school, go home, get in bed, watch TV and be on his phone, and that was his life.
Now, this home means “no depression,” Pollard said.
“This means navigating my life without thinking about calling somebody to come over here and help me with something. It’s my independence,” Pollard said.
The two-bedroom, two-bathroom home is equipped with features to benefit him.
The kitchen has lowered countertops and sinks with knee clearance, a drawer dishwasher, a swing-door oven, and a smart stove and a smart oven that are controlled from an app. The stove will not turn on unless a pot or pan is placed on it. The sink also turns on automatically through Pollard tapping the spout rather than having to push a knob.
A gap in care for those who age out of care programs for children
Bethany Children’s Health Center CEO Nico Gomez said the idea spawned out of their experiences with patients who were becoming adults but having trouble with barriers of affordable housing and jobs, despite wanting to be a part of the community.
“We started to kind of lean in. It’s like ‘Can we provide affordable housing for a population that is struggling with finding it?’” Gomez said. “And we really started to lean in and dream about what was possible, and today is the culmination of that dream in our first Mattie Home.”
The center’s Mattie Homes are named after its founder, Mattie Mallory, who ran orphanages in Oklahoma City before moving the children to Bethany. Mallory’s facility transitioned from an orphanage in the early 1900s to the pediatric rehabilitation center it is today.
The center offers inpatient and outpatient services and 24-hour complex care for people from birth to 21 years old.
But when patients age out of Bethany Children’s Health Center’s programs, there can be a gap in care.
Richard Mills-Tetteh, the center’s chief of marketing and engagement, said for patients who are cognitively functioning, this looks like challenges with accessibility and the lack of supportive services that allow for independence. For patients with complex medical and cognitive needs, many are forced into adult nursing homes.
Gomez said the Mattie Homes will provide another option for these patients.
Mattie Homes are intended to be transitional. There is no firm time limit for residents, but the goal is to provide a stable living environment for at least three years, Mills-Tetteh said.
“Maybe if we don’t have a home readily available for them, they can contact the developer or a home builder and say, ‘I want the plans that they used in Bethany for their Mattie Home for their Dewayne Model, and I have some land, will you come build me a house like that?’” Gomez said.
As kids age out, the rehabilitation center is limited on what it can do, so it’s going to stretch where it can help, Gomez said.
Which is what Bethany Children’s Health Center and Iron Bison Homes are doing for Pollard.
After Preston O’Brien, the owner and CEO of Iron Bison Homes, received a call from Gomez, who he has known for many years, they decided to partner for a pilot program. Gomez already had an individual in mind who had been through Bethany Children’s Health Center, so O’Brien paid him a visit.
“We went to Dewayne’s hometown in western Oklahoma and spent a day with Dewayne and just got to see the unique challenges that he faces on a daily basis that, oftentimes, you and I don’t have to even experience,” O’Brien said. “It was just unbelievably inspiring how Dewayne has overcome those unique challenges as well as adapted to the status quo of a normal home.”
O’Brien saw the challenges that Pollard faced, from light switches being in odd positions and electrical outlets being too low to countertops being too deep and thresholds being so high that his wheelchair couldn’t roll over if it doesn’t have enough battery power.
So, Pollard became a consultant for the project. The model they decided on was the third they looked at.
Pollard saw it completed for the first time minutes before the ribbon cutting.
He said he was shocked, and the detailed layout is one of his favorite parts.
“This is real. They actually did this. They actually paid attention,” Pollard said. “That’s just a thought that keeps coming over in my mind is just paying attention.”
Gomez and O’Brien are hopeful for the project’s future.
Mills-Tetteh said although applications are not open yet for future homes, this first Mattie Home is just the beginning.
“We’re going to spend a few months, learning from this experience, learning from Dewayne, learning about how it is built, what we can do differently,” Gomez said. “Then, I expect within the next year, we’re going to break ground on the next home or two.”
In the meantime, Pollard wants to emphasize to others like him, that they can create their own independence.
“For other people, I don’t know what it’s going to mean to them, but I want it to mean something good,” Pollard said. “I don’t want them to look at it and be like, ‘Oh, I didn’t get that.’ I want them to be like, ‘Oh, the next house could be mine.’”
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