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Describethemainpointsofthearticleandhowitrelatestotheweekscourse Week5Assignment2:ArticleAnalysis
Inthisassignment,youwillcriticallyevaluatearticlesinthefieldofadultdevelopment.Eachweek,youwillreadtwoarticlesandtextreadings.
Evaluatethearticleonthebasisofyourownthoughtsandperspectivesonthetopiccovered.
Article 35: The Wonder of Work
A grumbling and disenchanted workforce can learn a lot about gratitude from
those who treasure any job they can getindividuals with mental retardation
and other severe developmental disabilities.
Teri S. Arnold
Is your place of business driving you crazy? Do your coworkers get on your nerves? There is no
question that being on the job can test your patience by lifting you up, tearing you down, or
sometimes completely ignoring your contributions. It can be a place of passion and drive or a
place of frustrated and burnt out clock-watchers. Yet, there are many, many people with mental
retardation and other severe disabilities who have a refreshingly honest point of view about work
and how attitudes on the job can greatly affect happiness and job satisfaction. We all can learn a
lot from how they choose to see the world.
Be grateful that you have a job to go to every morning. Some 20,300,000 people with severe
developmental disabilities are unemployed in this country, and consequently often suffer
mentally and physically, while digressing developmentally. Those who have a job, however,
come into work with big smiles on their faces. They want to come to work on the weekends,
holidays, and even during inclement weather because they know how it dramatically affects theft
lives for the better. Regardless of who you are, having a job and a purpose in life is essential to
self-esteem, independence, and overall well-being. It might be difficult to drag yourself out of
bed on Monday morning, but without a job to go to, your quality of life would suffer immensely.
Each and every jobno matter how small it may appearis important. Whether you have
difficulty communicating, moving, hearing, seeing, or comprehending, every job for a person
with a severe disability is important. To someone without a disability, putting a cable into a bag
can seem monotonous and boring. It may appear to be just a very minute part of a larger
contractual obligation with an outside company but, to the individuals performing the task, it is
their one chance to be like everyone else. When they are on the job, they are not people with
mental retardation; they are coworkers and an essential part of a team with goals and objectives.
Status and titles have no meaning here because everyone is a vital cog in the companys success.
Greet your coworkers with a kind word or smile when you pass them in the hallway or
when they enter your workspace. In a world that increasingly is cut off from people and
emotions, simple gestures that display kindness and openness are harder and harder to find.
Walking onto the work floor is an instant mood-lifter. Everyone who visits is welcomed with
open arms and greeted in a positive manner, regardless of who they are or how much money they
make. Everybody wants to know how your day is going, shake your hand, and tell you how
excited they are to be on the job. Think of how differently your day would go if you treated your
coworkers in that manner.
Look for ways to encourage your coworkers to perform better and everyone will reap the
rewards. It is not uncommon to see people on the work floor assisting others with their daily
tasks or giving an encouraging word. No one is viewed as competition or as somebody to fear,
but rather as individuals who all are in the same boat, trying to make the best of some very
challenging situations. When someone accomplishes a personal or professional goal, his or her
achievements are championed by all. There is a deeper understanding that, when one person
wins, everyone wins.
Take breaks and have fun, even if for just a few minutes. Understand the value of balance in
your life. Due to physical, mental, and emotional limitations, breaks throughout the day are
mandatory for our clients. Because of the unique circumstances, becoming stressed and
overwhelmed not only affects one person, but quickly can permeate the entire workforce and
wreak havoc for everyone concerned. Knowing when to stop, to give your mind and body a
respite, is essential to maintaining a happy and healthy work environment for people with and
without disabilities.
Take pride in what you do, regardless of the pay or recognition. We all want to be known
for being the best at what we do. It is human nature to crave recognition and monetary
compensation for hard work and dedication. Many of the jobs here are assembly-line, labor
intensive, or entry level positions that most people would dread. However, every single person is
proud of the work he or she does and is eager to tell everyone they know about it. The work is
not glamorous, or that creative or dynamicand it probably never will be seen as something
deserving of high wages or praise. Yet, it serves a very important function in our society. These
are jobs that give incredible meaning and value to countless lives.
Life is too short to gossip, back-stab, or criticize. People who have the most compelling
reasons to complain about difficult life circumstances choose not to. Life is challenging for
everyone. We all deal with the daily frustrations of having to work with people who are not like
us. Some individuals communicate differently; some are slower or faster than us; and some do
not share our enthusiasm, but we all are required to work together. Conflicts arise on the work
floor, but they never last long or become spiteful, catty, or mean. Being focused and grateful on
the job leaves little time or energy for negative interactions with coworkers. Positive attitudes
give way to positive interactions.
Focus on what you have, instead of what you do not. It is easy to get caught up in keeping up
with the Jones. In a society where it is all about the nicest car, clothes, and house, we miss out
on enjoying what we have in the constant search for something bigger and better. Many of the
clients with mental retardation, autism, and other severe disabilities have very little in life.
Almost all cannot drive, do not own a home, and wear the same clothes year after year. However,
that does not change how happy and fulfilled they are. The one thing they want is to feel normal
in the here and now. Working gives them thatand as long as they are provided the opportunity,
they feel like millionaires.
Enjoy the little things in life. Some of the clients get paid two dollars every two weeks but, to
them, it is like getting $2,000. It is not about the monetary value of the check, but the paycheck
alone that gives them pride in themselves and what they do. While most people take it for
granted, for them, going to the mall and buying something with their own hard-earned money is
an indescribable joy. The next time you buy something for yourself, remember how hard you
worked to get it. It will make your purchase even more rewarding.
Get excited about going to work. Even if it is raining outside or you are stuck in traffic or are
running late, you were hired because of your unique abilities and talents. You specifically were
chosen because someone was impressed by what only you can bring to the table. Someone had
faith in you and believed in you. Celebrate and enjoy that fact. So many people with severe
developmental disabilities never even are considered for employment. All too often they are
perceived as not being useful to society, much less on the job. Imagine how it would feel
knowing you have a lot to contribute to the world, but no one will give you a chance. As a result,
you spend your entire life hoping that someone will come along who will see you for who you
really are and give you that opportunity to shine.
People with mental retardation and other severe disabilities are elated to be at work. They often
are the first to arrive and most days dread having to leave. Their work ethic is something beyond
compare because they know how it feels to be isolated and segregated away from normal life.
They appreciate the opportunities they are given and show their gratitude by excelling on the job.
Our motto is, Its not about the work they produce, but what the work produces in them. That
is true for all people in all work environments. In many ways, your work defines who you are
and brings to the surface your core values and character. It can make your life enjoyable or
completely miserable. It is all in how you choose look at it and how you choose to let it affect
you. Take some time to see life from someone elses perspective and learn the important lessons
that they are trying to teach you. It often is in the most unexpected places where we find the
greatest gifts.
Teri S. Arnold is director of public relations, Chesapeake Service (Va.) Systems, a nonprofit
organization that provides meaningful work opportunities to people with mental retardation and
other severe disabilities.
Article#2
Article 38: Lost and Found
Promising therapy for Alzheimers draws out the person inside the patient.
Barbara Basler
The woman wore a plain housedress and a big apron, its pockets stuffed with plastic checkers.
Head down, eyes blank, she shuffled aimlessly around the activity room. Cameron Camp, a
research psychologist who was visiting this assisted living home in Kentucky, watched the 70year-old woman for a moment. Then, he recalls, I went up to her and gave her one of our books
the one on Gene Kelly, the dancerand asked her to please read a page.
He pauses, remembering the woman and the skeptical staffand the very next moment.
She took the book and read aloudclear as a bell, Camp says with a smile. A shocked staffer
turned to me and said, I didnt even know she could speak. Thats a miracle.
Camp heads the Myers Research Institute in Beachwood, Ohio, and his cutting-edge work with
patients in all stages of Alzheimers has left him improbably upbeatbecause he sees miracles
like this day after day.
His research is part of a sea of change in the care of Alzheimers patients who are in the later
stages of the disease: Ten to 15 years ago these people were institutionalized, and their care
involved physical or chemical restraints, says Kathleen OBrien, vice president of program and
community services for the Chicago-based Alzheimers Association, which, with the National
Institutes of Health, has helped fund Camps work.
Psychologist Cameron Camp says patients live in the moment. Our job is to give
them as many good moments as we can.
Today, she says, more than 70 percent of those with Alzheimers are cared for in the family
home, and we talk about controlling the disease and enhancing daily life for those who have it.
Alzheimers, the most common form of dementia in people over the age of 65, affects 4.5 million
Americans. An irreversible brain disorder, the disease robs people of their memory and
eventually impairs most of their mental and physical functions.
While research typically focuses on preventing Alzheimers or delaying its progress in the early
stages, some medical specialists and long-term care professionals are investigating activities that
will help patients in the later stages.
We cant stop cell death from Alzheimers, Camp explains. But at any stage of dementia there
is a range of capability. If you give people a reason to get out of bed, activities that engage them
and allow them to feel successful, they will be at the top of their game, whatever it is.
Camp, 53, began his research 10 years ago when he looked at the activities developed for young
children by the educator Maria Montessori, whose method is followed today in Montessori
schools around the world. There, children learn by manipulating everyday objects like balls,
seashells and measuring spoons in highly structured activities that engage children but rarely
allow them to fail.
Camp adapted these kinds of exercises for older people with dementia, tailoring them to the
individuals background and interests, and found he could draw out the person inside the patient.
Suddenly, they just wake up, come alive for the moment, he says.
That happened to Mary Anne Duffys husband when they took part in Camps research. James
Duffy, 77, has Parkinsons disease and dementia and is confined to a wheelchair in a nursing
home in Mentor, Ohio.
James loved woodworking, Duffy says, and he liked fixing things, so the researcher brought
him a small box to paint, nuts and bolts to put together, puzzles. Before her husband began the
activities, she says, he just sat there, nodding off.
But when he was working a puzzle or painting a box, James actually smiledsomething I
hadnt seen for a long time, Duffy says. And he would talk. That was amazing.
People with Alzheimers live in the moment, and our job is to give them as many good
moments as we can, Camp says. We need to be thinking about these people in a new way.
Instead of focusing on their problems and deficits, we need to ask what strengths and abilities
remain.
People had assumed, for instance, that the woman with the checkers in her apron pockets was too
impaired to read. But studies have found that reading is one of the very last skills to fade away.
Its automatic, almost a reflex, Camp says.
If the print is right, he says as he flips through one of his specially designed books with big,
bold letters, many Alzheimers patients can read.
One goal of Camps work has been to turn his research into practical how-to guides for
professional and family caregivers. Published by the Myers Research Institute, the guides have
been translated into Chinese, Japanese and Spanish.
While long-term care residences may have some activities for dementia patientslike coloring
in a picture or listening to a storyoften they dont have activities that are meaningful, that call
on an adults past, Camp says. And even people with Alzheimers are bored if an activity isnt
challenging or interesting.
Much of Camps research is with residents at Menorah Park Center for Senior Living in
Beachwood, which is affiliated with Myers Research. After Alzheimers patients were given the
large-print books that he and his colleagues developed, many could read aloud and discuss the
books.
A brief biography of Leonardo da Vinci, for instance, talks about some of his wildly imaginative
inventions, like a machine that would let soldiers breathe underwater so they could march
underneath enemy ships, drill holes in their hulls and sink them.
Its a wonderful, wacky idea, Camp says. Dementia patients react to it just as we do. They
love it. They laugh, they shake their heads. They talk about it.
Education Director Lisa P. Gwyther of the Bryan Alzheimers Disease Research Center at Duke
University Medical Center recalls visiting a facility where she saw Alzheimers patients
themselves teaching some of the simple activities they had learned to preschool children. I was
so impressed with the dignity and the purpose and the fun that was observable between the older
person and younger child, she says. Camps work has been rigorously studied in a number of
small pilot projects, she adds, which means this is a reliable, valid method.
At Menorah Park, Camp and his team look at what basic skills remain in those with dementia:
Can the person read, sort, categorize, manipulate objects? Then they customize activities for
those skills.
We had one man who loved baseball, Camp says. We had him sort pictures of baseball
players into American and National leagues. Another man who loved opera sorted titles into
operas by Puccini and operas by Verdi.
The activities help patients maintain the motor skills needed to feed themselves or button
buttons. They also trigger memories, then conversations that connect the patient and the
caregiver.
People with dementia wont consciously remember the activity from one session to the next. But,
Camp says, some part of them does remember, and eventually they will get bored. So you cant
have them match the same pictures each time.
It doesnt matter if patients make mistakes, Camp adds. Whats important is that they enjoy the
process.
Mike Skrajner, a project manager for Myers Research who monitored an Alzheimers reading
group at Menorah Park, recalls one morning when the group was reading a biography of Gene
Kelly and came to the part where Kelly tells his father he is quitting law schoolto take ballet
lessons. They stopped right there and had a great conversation about how they would react to
that news, he says. It was a wonderful session, and at the end they all wound up singing
Singin in the Rain.
Manipulating everyday objects helps patients maintain skills for feeding
themselves or brushing their teeth.
Camps research shows that people who engage in such activities tend to exhibit fewer signs of
agitation, depression and anxiety.
George Niederehe, acting chief of the geriatrics research branch of the National Institute of
Mental Health, which is funding some of Camps work, says a large study of patients in longterm care facilities is needed for definitive proof of the effectiveness of Camps approach. But
his method could be as helpful to caregivers as it is to people with Alzheimers, he says, because
it would improve staff morale, knowing they can do something useful for these patients. And
that, he adds, would enhance the overall environment for staff and residents alike.
One vital part of Camps theorylike Montessorisis that residents need activities that give
them a social role, whether its contributing at a book club or stirring lemonade for a party.
The Menorah Park staff worked with one patient, a former mailman, who loved folding pieces of
paper stamped with Have a Nice Day! He stuffed the notes into envelopes and delivered them
to other residents.
What we try to do, Camp says, is let the person you remember shine through the disease, even
if its only a few moments a day.