Hey bloop, what’s up? Lots here and figured I should update you.
Last Tuesday I went to work with no agenda. My supervisor had told me the week before that he doesn’t want me to do groups but rather just let the residents come to me. So that is exactly what I did. I talked to my coworker who I have been working with for 4 years about it and she said that he didn’t say anything about it to her. I went up to the dining room table where I work from and for 2 hours, I sat and played on line games, looked at FB and espn.com. The residents, except for dinner and smoking, never came out of their rooms and didn’t socialize at all. I got so mad at this way of doing things…my new supervisor saying that he wants us to be more relaxed with the residents. Wants us to not worry so much about goals and structure but to me and my educational knowledge, that’s exactly what they need. So I emailed what I thought was his supervisor but turns out she over sees the houses but is not a supervisor to anyone. I had reached out to her, as I wrote to her in my email, because I have a very good rapport with her and after a few emails, we agreed on her calling me on Friday afternoon.
Friday afternoon I waited and waited and thought she forgot about me…at 5:30 ish the phone rang and it was her. Not that she has a sexy voice or a soothing voice but to hear her voice was comforting to me.
I told her I had two issues. One was this food plan they were going to be starting in March or early April for all the houses in the company. It is being mandated by the state from some … I’m not sure if it is a grant or a health act that was put into place…but the short of it is, the residents at the house I work in prepare their own dinner for the house on their assigned night to cook. There are 7 residents and 7 days a week so it matches up perfectly. On Thursday night during our house meeting, they inform us what they would like to make and Friday morning we go shopping to purchase these items. On the day they are assigned to cook, they come to staff, let us know they are ready to cook and asks the staff the get whatever they need from the locked freezer in the basement. The staff retrieves the items and leaves them on the counter for the resident. Unless the residents has a question, the staff will go back to doing paperwork.
What the new plan will be, is this 6 week, rotating seasonal dinner plan, where they will be told what to make on each night.
The positive from my view
They learn how to read and follow a recipe. They learn how to properly use timers and measure.
They learn how to make and better learn what healthy foods are. (I have one client who believes that if a food tastes good, that it is good for you because God wouldn’t produce harmful foods)
Negatives from my view
It takes away from their independence and creativity to choose what they want to make on their night. They have to eat whatever is served and the correct portion. (We will always have P+J and Tuna around)
We will have to have a staff member be in the kitchen with the resident at all time which takes them away from their paperwork and other duties.
The lady...we’ll call her C… so C agreed with all my concerned and pointed to the fact that there is not much we can do right now but to keep her updated if it works or not and what the residents think. She said more on the topic but that’s the jiff of it.
C asked me “How is it going with the new house manager?”
I sighed and said, that’s the other thing I wanted to talk to you about.
I started by saying, I know that I’ve had A+ personalities with my last two supervisors in Tracey and Dana but this guy has totally different views than I do. I come from the educational and personal belief that structure and goals are good. He’s lax on things. He doesn’t think I should be doing groups. He says “if they want to talk to us, they will come and talk” Yes, and if we don’t hold groups, they will just stay in their rooms and not socialize. If they come to my group and not pay attention-learn from me, they are still socializing with others. As it comes to goals. He says that we are telling them what their goals should be. Which is not correct for the most part. I agree we shouldn’t tell anyone what their goals should be but in order for DMH to pay the organization for the house, they need to see goals completed quarterly. He is being forced to go against what he believes but he’s going to be lax about it. It should be interesting.
I had brought up all these points and a lot more with C. C agreed with me 1000 %. She asked me if I want her to talk to him and I told her no, only because we had done a group the night before, although it was with his agenda but I let him tell the residents about his topic and I explained it so the residents all understood what he was talking about.
Although nothing will come from the phone call with C, it is still nice to know that there is someone who is not only in my corner but agrees with every word I said and then some.
The other thing which is a completely different topic
I have a social worker (I guess is what she is but not really sure) who is from a department on the state called the commission of the blind. Everyone who is eligible and registered with the commission received various help-advocates. When I need mobility, they help me find –pay for an instructor. When I needed a new computer, my person wrote up the document saying that I would use the computer for work or school. If I get my own place, they will help me to make it accessible etc etc. Well I had the same person since I was 14 years old. That person is cutting down her hours and so she felt that she could not devote the time I need and this other lady, is more knowledgeable about finding jobs and making connections. (and why didn’t the state give me this other person sooner?)
I will start by saying that I recognize the people I will be mentioning has no idea who I am or what I’m capable of doing. However, I figure some common sense should be involved. Unless I’m just under estimating what I have been able to do-can do.
The first thing they are setting me up with is this job hire program. It’s a step by step process that starts with an interview with the employment specialist of the commission of the blind. I did that on Wednesday late morning. It went well. In this phone call he discussed the program in details and then asked me about myself and what I am looking for in a job.
I didn’t realize he didn’t know anything about me. When we were trying to schedule a time to chat, I told him Tues-Thurs are not good as I work those days. He was shocked I work.
We talked about basically my resume. I also told him things I enjoy doing, such as writing poetry and how I’m a huge sports fan. I also said that if this counseling doesn’t work out, I am pondering maybe going into being an advocate for people with disabilities as I enjoy not only defending people’s rights (hm think that the kid in me who wanted to be a lawyer?) and the fact that I have read-understand and have written letters on my behalf as well as others to assist in getting what they are entitled to.
After chatting for almost an hour, he said that he would be contacting me soon with the information on who-where I will be interviewing for a mock interview. After the mock interview, the following step is they will review all the people they mock interviewed, and invite 40 of them to this job hire event on March 20th. It’s a job fare but you are going with the knowledge that you will be interviewing with companies. You may-may not get a job from it. I am unsure about all this but I’ll play their game.
While talking to this guy, he asked me if I have a cover letter. I told him I do. He asked me with an unsure tone, if I have any references. I told him I have references on a document with the people’s names, company they work for, their position, their email and phone number and address to the location which they work. In a very shocked tone he said “oh. Ok”.” In my head I was thinking…doesn’t every professional have a list of references?
I recognize that a small percentage of blind people have career jobs which would require degrees and trainings. I guess that’s why this guy is surprised I have all the stuff I do and have done all the things I have done. I hope at this Job Hire, on March 20th, they will have companies in my field. I have been to a handful + of job fares for the disabled and usually 1-2 of the 30-40 companies have something that sounds like counseling. So we’ll see how it all goes.
Back to my social worker from the commission of the blind, she has set me up with a group of blind people who are looking for employment. They discuss barriers and share stories. Basically networking. This group meets once a month in Boston on Wednesday mornings. So my first meeting is this Wednesday.
Monday: Mock interview
Tuesday work
Wednesday employment meeting
Thursday Work
In other news
I went out with my twin for lunch yesterday. It was just me and him. It was very nice. We got to chat without interruptions from others and we didn’t have to walk on any egg shells.
He told me more about his new jobs and how excited he is and more so, how relieve he is to leave his other company with the boss who is a slave driver. My twin is an architect and this new company, which is only 5 years old, he use to work with the owner 10 years ago for a different company. So this new company has a lot of people in their first few years out of college and a few who are at the top but no middle man. In comes justin. Justin is going to review the drawings and sit and discuss-point out-assist the young kids on their mistakes and he’ll also have some input on the top level too. He thinks it’s a perfect job for him and as the company grows, so wont his duties and pay check. Although what he makes now I would never see in my profession… I told him about everything that I wrote above. We also talked about our family and about his baby who at 18 months still wasn’t walking on his own. They took him to an intervention thing and they found out that since he never crawled,, he scoots, his hip muscles are not developed as well as someone his age and so they are going to work on that with him and an a PT. However, when they came over, Devin did walk without help the 3 or so feet from my twin to me. I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t know he could do that at all. Apparently he has been trying to work on his own just this week and he wanted to show off for his uncle Jonathan.
OH, part of the intervention, was to see his verbal skills. I guess at 18 months you are suppose to have 20 words which you can say clearly and use correctly. My nephew has over 200 words he can say and use correctly. Plus, having his mother’s side of the family who speak Portuguese, he probably knows over 400 words if you combined the two languages.
He is a smarty
Today is superbowl 48. I don't care about either teams but we're going over my sister's house. She's ordering in Chinese food. Plus have have 2 squares so... go 0-4 and 8--7 
I think I want Seattle to win |
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