What To Do When Working With Mixed Abilities In A Group

When working with different groups of people it is important to remember that a person's disabilities are more  apparent than their abilities. This is because abilities are not so apparent when based in a care setting as residents develop a learned dependency, they have carers and  nurses managing their day to day needs, they loose their ability to feel motivated and fail to take the initiative to instigate things themselves.

I see this all the time and with gentle persuasion and encouragement they can sum up the courage to feel motivated to participate or do something for themselves.

If these abilities are not nurtured , a person can become very deflated, more dependent on their carer and suffer low self esteem which  can have a knock on affect in all areas in some cases.

Therefore for the AC working with people of all abilities you must identity their ability  , their disability would be documented and you will find that well meaning relatives will offer preconceived opinions of their relatives abilities as well.

I have found it is a matter of trying something and seeing how you  possibly adapt this for them.  For example, I remember one of my postings was in a home with disabled people with varying abilities and disabilities  and their was a gentleman there who we will call Malcolm who had Down-syndrome and he loved to make tea. 

So we devised a safe way for him to make tea instead of saying no he could not.  We would half boil the kettle, place milk in a jug for ease of lifting, and would have a staff member present when he made tea, even if half of it went all the counter the sense of achievement he felt by independently making a cup of tea was phenomenal for him.It was a confidence boost and he began to try things he would of before limited himself to but because he was able to make tea and we would remind him of this ability he would give everything a go. Imagine the flip side of this, if we had had said no it's too dangerous for you to make tea etc, he would of retreated into himself  and not grew in confidence.

I think keeping an open  mind is vital and thinking outside the box is helpful. Look at ways things can be adapted for a person to participate is vital.

In some instances, identifying disabilities  such as  poor vision and deafness are obviously going to cause a problem if you work in a group as the people affected by such disabilities will not be able to fully join in  unless what activity you have  you are able to include them all.So as to meet everyone's needs it is important to get to know what people enjoy.

 So to summarize you need to remember that a person's disabilities are likely to be much more apparent then their abilities. 

Objectively assess potential abilities yourself by trying different things to gauge that and talking to the person involved.

And adapt the sessions to abilities of the groups or individuals you have been working with.  

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Until next time,

Keep Shining,

Ann Marie Lovejoy Bruce Kerr x