MsFlutter
Posts: 1305
Joined: 11/12/2008 From: East Coast Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: hereyesruponyou I work with teens and adults with disabilities. My specialty is transitioning youth (18-21yr olds), especiallty those with developmental disabilities. ..... Hereyes- I see you are one of the many angels in our part of the country. Thank you (and all those like you) who make raising children like this a less-isolated experience. I had no way of knowing when we moved here that we'd arrived in a resource-rich environment piloted by people just like you :) My MIMR offspring has been in special needs programs since age three. (spatial difficulties, expressive/receptive incompatibilities, and skills too scattered to measure.) Over two decades and several thousand IEP/BMPs later, I see a nurturing, sweet-natured human who has blossomed as a result of special schools and inclusion programs. You'd never suspect that many things between those two points in time looked very much like a Roomba vacuum in action. Clearly I am not the only "overly detail-oriented" care provider in this bunch. Micro-micromanagement makes us appear to outsiders as though WE are OCD but we are, in reality, smoothing the way. (I agree with Holly - I wish God didn't trust me so much.) If it weren't for respite care, my hair would have fallen out from stress. I learned early on that a heavily-noted calendar hanging on the wall helps frame expectation (on the um's part) and lessens the need (on my part) for crisis management. Care providers sometimes have to learn the hard way about carving out time to recharge their batteries. I did very well for many years as Superwoman - I had it dialed in. Right up until the day I found myself sobbing in the ER -unable to get thru a sentence without crying, paralyzed by anything that required a decision. Caretaker stress, they said. Ugly place - took a year, some meds and a nice lady with a mental health degree and a gentle voice to put me back together. There have been a lot of days when I suspect some deity is punishing me for something I did in a past life. Then again, maybe it is bigger than me. Maybe I have it backwards. Maybe I am here to be the advocate for someone who was going to arrive with a different package of skills and needed a steam roller on their side to make sure they didnt get lost in the crowd. Maybe I just complete the circuit between the person in need and people like Hereyes. :)
< Message edited by MsFlutter -- 8/1/2009 4:49:18 AM >
_____________________________
'Dont torture yourself, Gomez darling. That's my job' Morticia Addams "The right data, filtered through an idiot, can yield a bad answer." einstien5201
|