Dream Job

DREAM JOB

by

Carl Jarvis

 

How would you like a job that made you feel like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy all rolled into one?

Would you like to come home from work feeling like you'd spent a pleasant day visiting with your grandparents, parents or a favorite aunt or uncle?

If you answer "yes" to both of these questions, you may want to consider a career as a Rehabilitation Teacher in the Independent Living Program. It pretty much describes how Cathy and I feel about our work.

As our Ford Sport Trak rumbles along Snow Creek Road and onto Highway 101 we talk over plans for the day, review Participant's progress and watch out for Elk, deer and other critters who also share the road. Since the entire staff of Peninsula Rehabilitation Services easily fit inside the truck's cab, we hold management meetings, long range planning, case reviews, and employee appreciation parties while traveling between Participant's homes. There's something to be said for "smallness" in business. You can always talk to the boss, and when things are really going well, one hug takes care of the whole organization.

Finding qualified people in Kitsap, Mason, Jefferson and Clallam counties is no problem. Convincing them that our Services are free is sometimes a tougher task.

Since Macular Degeneration is by far the most popular eye condition among older folks, the majority of our Program Participant's have some usable vision. So, much of our time is spent working with magnifiers and other low vision aids, and teaching skills and techniques which assist people in using their remaining eyesight more effectively.

But, people who have relied on their eyes for 70, 80 or 90 years are not ready to change. What they really want is to see just as good as they used to.

"I was hoping you had some Sight in that little bag of yours", a ninety year old man teased. "If I did", I assured him, "I'd have used it up before I got here".

Life-long attitudes about blindness are not easily changed, either. A lady, in her mid nineties, nearly deaf and barely able to see, told us the raised markings on her stove dials simply did not help her set the temperature. No matter how close she got, she still couldn't see them. She was quite startled when she learned I was totally blind. It never occurred to her that blind people could work.

Sometimes people confuse other age related limitations with failing eyesight. An eighty year old Participant told us he and his wife would have to sell their house now that he had lost so much vision. "I can't climb the ladder and clean the gutters any longer, and I'm scared to get up on the roof".

"When was the last time you climbed the ladder and got up on the roof?" Cathy asked. The man paused and then chuckled as he recalled it had been some years ago, long before his eye condition was discovered.

Although we provide a lot of information and resources to Participant's, most of them are really quite clever and have adapted to their situation. What they need mostly is reassurance that what they are doing is the "right" thing to do.

Of course there is a down side to our job. Just about the time we really get to know folks and we're looking forward to our next visit, we discover we've completed all the training and services and it's time to bring the case to a close and bid our new friends goodbye.

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