JUST A LITTLE VENTING.....IN A BACKWARDS UNIVERSE

I have a new job. I work in a Group Home for the physically and mentally challenged. I've come to enjoy the ladies I work with and the residents of the home I am working at. For the last few months that I've been working there, the job has provided me with some 'eye opening' information.

Part of me hoped that working for a non-profit organization would, in and of itself, be satisfying to my personality type. But sadly, it has proven to be an experience in total frustration. Here's why.

-The non-profit expects it's staff to integrate the individuals
into the community.

-The non-profit expects it's staff to find activities for the
individuals they work with.

-The non-profit expects it's staff to help the individuals they
work with to lose weight.

Now since I've had a good five months to observe how the organization runs, and have been told what is expected from me in the position I hold, let me tell you how I CANNOT SUCCEED AT MY JOB:

-Each individual I work with has a different level of functioning. Their verbal skills are still a challenge to me, never mind someone who has met them for the first time. Therefore when you live in a small city, with absolutely limited activities, where do you integrate 40, 50, and 60 year old people??? I have talked with my supervisor and mentioned that it would be so nice to have the non-profit rent, buy, a hall where these ladies and gentlemen can get together with their friends from work. How exciting for these individuals to be able to get out of the homes and visit in the evenings, on weekends with those that they are MOST comfortable with - their FRIENDS. But no, the non-profit says that is not their goal for these individuals........some of whom were raised in institutions. The goal of the non-profit is to integrate.

The individuals I work with constantly ask if they can see their friends, who also live in Group Homes owned and run by the same non-profit, but we are supposed to take those we are caring for and drag (sorry for my choice of words) them through Wal Mart, Mc'Donalds, etc.

One week, I found an Art Exhibit in our city that was free. I took the ladies there. We were all so out-of-place. But, the non-profit was happy that these individuals got to look at pictures and eat a cookie.

How would you like to spend your time after work, your weekends, with people you have NOTHING IN COMMON WITH ??? What if after work, after saying bye to your friends, you went home and staff said, we're going out tonight to spend time with people who only speak Pig-Latin. How much fun do you think these individuals have doing this week after week???

I know, only because I have a son with a disability. It has been hard to find places to integrate him into. And, my son is lucky because he has found a small nitch in our community where he is happy. But I don't think that a Group Home would be a safe and nurturing place for him.

Of course, the individuals I work with have the 'option' of NOT going out into the community. And, most of the time, they opt to stay home. They do not want to go somewhere just for the sake of 'going somewhere'.

-Next is the issue of 'loosing weight'. The individuals that I work with are older, they are ladies going or have already gone through menopause. They are overweight. They all visit the doctor twice a year for weight checks. At their last visit, they all put on two to four pounds. The manager of the house is upset, asking staff to make sure they discourage the ladies from eating between meals and no eating after supper. But ....... the key, in my humble opinion, is the meals they get. Most of the time, lunches are bologna sandwiches, sometimes tuna, and egg salad. Breakfast is always toast with artificial butter or generic cereals. And supper is rice-a-roni, noodles in boxes with cheese sauces, and a meat and a vegetable. That's it. Oh, they do get their fruit, it comes in little cans.

Now these ladies do not have desserts. They sometimes have granola bars for a snack in their lunches but that's about it. On rainy Saturdays I will bake cookies with the ladies, but that has been discouraged by the house manager, saying that we don't want to get them into any bad habits. I look for recipies that are low in fats & calories, but tasty. But I'm totally discouraged.

The ladies do not exercise. On weekends, we will take them for walks, but most of them will walk 50 feet and cry that their knees hurt, or are just tired and won't walk anymore. It is an exercise in frustration only.

So, what do I do. I have ideas, I present ideas to the appropriate people, the ideas are always po-poo'd as those in charge say they know better. They (those in charge) keep coming up with more and more rules.....more and more paperwork/documentation.

Like the title of this blog says, I'm venting. I left a job that was being overrun with narcissistic managers/bosses. And here I find myself faced with the same thing again - just different.

Sooooooooo, I just heard about this book, "Snakes in Suits", and I'm going down to the bookstore to get it pronto. I wanna know what it is I'm up against in this backwards world of ours ..... a world run by psychopaths.

~ The Mediator