In late January, I was fortunate enough to listen in on several presentations and webinars speaking to the trends happening in the world Little Friends works in, a landscape providing support to children and adults dealing with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities (I/DD). I knew from just what we do that the demand for services continues to increase. What I got from the webinars provided greater context, and the information gathered I thought might be of interest to others.
Some interesting statistics were shared by a national association by the name of ANCOR. First, the number of individuals dealing with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities in 2021 were 8.56 million in the United States. What was interesting was that it was noted that States across our country do not know where all these people are, as 20% were estimated to be children, and 44% were estimated to be adults. About one-third of the estimated population dealing with I/DD was based upon extrapolation done by national agencies, as the data was not there in detail.
As to those receiving services from State agencies, the number of people receiving help has grown from 794K to 1,434K over 20 years. Doing simple math from the data shared, basically one in six people dealing with I/DD are receiving some kind of support from a State. What was interesting as follows on information is that of those receiving support, 61% of these individuals are at home with family, and 11% have their own home. Just 15% of those receiving services from State agencies are involved with an organization like Little Friends. This surprised me knowing the fact that we receive on average 30-40 requests for residential support every month!
When the group did a “deeper dive” into the services provided by families, it was noted that 25% of the current caregivers are aged 60 or older, and of the individuals dealing with I/DD, estimates are that people over the age of 65 will reach 1 million people by 2030, less than five years away. With the continued growth in demand, and the changing dynamics that now include dealing with an aging population for both caregivers and individuals served, the system as it exists has its hands full without some kind of change to expand the resources needed to keep people safe, healthy and leading a meaningful life.
I acknowledge that I don’t have every answer related to how we fix all of this. What I do know is that we and others in our support structure will have to push ourselves for new and creative ways to leverage what we do well and remain in the position to make a difference in the lives of those individuals and families we serve.
The good news is that we remain committed to positioning the organization to grow, knowing that our services will be needed in our community for a long time to come.
Editor’s Note / One more thing… Remember the annual Little Friends Auction again is the first Saturday in March. For 2026, that’s March 6, and the gala now is set at Embassy Suites by Hilton Chicago Naperville, located at 1823 Abriter Court.
For more information, visit www.littlefriendsinc.org/adults/events. To register, contact Megan O’Brien via email at mobrien@lilfriends.com.
