Custody
Custody can mean things like oversight, control, and stability. Inherent within all of this is the idea of limits.
When dealing with the brain and the human spirit, which one of us can accurately predict limitations? It is my wish, my hope, that our system of care focuses more on processes and not end goals. People vary, and we have different ways of learning, growing, and living. The effort to learn and try is the nobility of our human lives.
We shouldn’t be satisfied that people have a nice view from their rehab facility window or that everyone is healthy and safe in their day program.
This isn’t a problem of care workers being paid meager wages or the high turnover among their ranks. The problem starts with our society’s low expectations of what a care system is expected to do. It’s a system that primarily focuses on the physical health of people in care and doesn’t expect much in its goals for socialization and learning. Passivity and compliance are rewarded.
Plastic Learning aims to find simple and stimulating activities for people. A simple form, “I AM,” lets people share things about themselves. It’s an excellent tool for groups as it allows people to learn new things about each other. It might help the process to have a facilitator write down the responses or have pictures and stickers available for people with literacy challenges. The goal is to find out about each other, take a moment to stir the brain, and have some fun. This exercise was inspired by the international organization L’Arche, and you can see one example of their “I AM” YouTube series HERE.
In all the years that I conducted this exercise, I never once heard someone say, “I am disabled.” It’s always that they are a brother, son, singer, etc. We are all complex beings that defy basic labels and stereotypes. Disability doesn’t define them. Let me know how the exercise works for you!