Snoezelen room opens for disabilities support in Hamilton

A new resource called a Snoezelen room is now available to support individuals with physical and developmental disabilities in Hamilton.

The ribbon was cut Friday on an exciting new addition to the Portuguese Support Services for Quality Living building.

A soft, colourful, relaxing and stimulating new room.

The Portuguese support services, or Luso Support Centre of Hamilton, is a charitable organization that provides a safe, supportive and caring environment for people and families living with physical or developmental disabilities.

The centre says the new room makes it’s program more accessible.

“That was a project to make this program more accessible, remove barriers,” said Executive Director Jacinta Riberio. “It stimulates the different senses, the visual, the tactile.”

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The room features padded floors, walls, bubble tube and more. The room aims to relax, or stimulate, depending on what the person needs.

“Some of them they need that relaxing space, they need that peace of mind, or someone that needs to be stimulated, it also provides that,” said Riberio. “When you press a button it responds somewhere else and it prompts you to more activity, to more stimulations.”

The cost to build the room, including the addition of seven new automatic doors throughout the building was around $100,000.

The organization received some funding from the government of Canada’s Enabling Accessibility Fund, while the rest came from community donations.

Heather Grand, the CEO of Luso Canadian charitable organizations says support is much-needed.

Grand says the organizations next project is to build a residential building on main street east for its members.