Donald and Cathy Moore are the owners of New Horizons. Don Moore is a nursing home administrator, licensed in Texas and Oklahoma, and has owned and managed a number of nursing homes and related businesses for many years. Cathy Moore is a licensed social worker in Texas, a licensed nursing home administrator in Oklahoma, and a QMRP in both states.
In 1991, Don and Cathy became interested in developing a specialized program in which individuals with developmental disabilities could live in a small home-like setting where their individual needs for care, training, and supervision could be met. The Moores’ wanted the living environment to be home-like, not institutional, in appearance. They wanted the residents to be able to enjoy the benefits of living in a regular neighborhood within the community. The vision of New Horizons is to give residences the best chance possible at normalization.
With this vision in mind, they set up the first “office” for New Horizons ICF/MR Homes in a patient room at a nursing home in Texarkana, Texas. There the first policies and procedures were written, as they worked to evaluate how we could best meet the needs of the special persons we serve. During those stages of development, we agreed that our residents would always be the most important persons in our program.
Over the passage of time, some of our policies and procedures have changed. We have refined various aspects of the program for the sake of streamlining and/or efficiency.