Magic Happens when People Come Together
By Julie Moran, MA, Community Outreach Coordinator, North Country Community Mental Health
The year 2020 brought a global pandemic and life-altering change for all of us. COVID-19 emergency measures in Michigan saw schools and businesses closed, employees furloughed, and directives to shelter in our homes to stay safe.
The stress of day-to-day living with the unknown and the threat of serious illness for ourselves and our loved ones is taking its toll. The feelings of exclusion, limitation and possibly loneliness forced upon us by the mitigation efforts are well known to a large swath of Americans. For many of us, though temporary, they feel interminable. However, for people with mental illness or intellectual and developmental disabilities, these feelings can, in fact, last a lifetime.
March, April and May are typically designated to celebrate the abilities and important contributions of our citizens with a mental illness or intellectual and developmental disability. These months are not to focus on their disabilities. Rather, the intent is to discover how they enrich our communities when they are fully included as we all work, play, worship, learn and grow together. Yet these are the very people who are excluded on a routine basis. In the State of Michigan, 1 in 5 people has a mental illness or developmental disability. What is important to know is that each is unique, as we all are, and each has important strengths as well.
Meet Josh. Josh is an example of a citizen with gifts, abilities and a strong desire to contribute—not to be excluded or limited. With the support of his family, friends, other community members, and his Community Mental Health Services Program, he has built a life of inclusion and giving, benefitting both himself and his community.
What might be noticeable is that Josh has a disability. What is not apparent from the outside is that Josh is a family member, a son, and a brother. Josh is a young adult. He is described as “incredibly sweet-tempered and displays his happiness for all to see with a big smile while humming his favorite tunes.” Josh is not verbal. His communication is through his actions. He can take extra time to learn a task but most importantly he then stays with it until it is done, no matter how long it takes. Josh has a diagnosis of Autism and does not easily understand social cues, but when Josh “gets a situation” and understands its importance, he tries his best to be helpful. For his mother, he always makes sure she has her phone when she leaves the house and the grocery list if they are going shopping. His mother shares that she was unable to find the cashews for their stir-fry dinner one evening. Josh was able to understand the situation and ran up to the “man cave” and got them. As a contributing member of the household, Josh has mastered many jobs around the house such as setting and clearing the table, filling and emptying the dishwasher, loading the washing machine and switching loads, vacuuming, washing windows, and putting groceries away. He also helps his father working in the yard, blowing leaves and stacking wood.
Communities thrive when their members invest in them by volunteering. Josh has contributed in this way as well by volunteering at the Manna Food Project as well as C. Kolfer Sporthorses. He sounds like an ideal family member and young adult to have as part of any community.
Josh has had strong family backing, friends, and now an employer and support staff to help him accomplish his goals of being productive and included in his community. Josh’s family reached out to North Country Community Mental Health, their local state-funded provider of behavioral health services, for service coordination and funding. They chose the Self-determination model for services which allows Josh and his family to manage a budget and hire and employ the staff needed for Josh’s chosen lifestyle. This allows his life to be self-determined and self-directed, something his parents have championed for him his whole life. If it were not for his strengths and their belief in him, Josh might have been one of those people with a disability languishing in loneliness and exclusion.
One of the goals Josh’s parents have always had for him was to be employed. They put a strong focus on this even during his school years and would not give up. He had summer job experiences working in a restaurant and last summer through Michigan Rehabilitation Services (MRS) as part of a work crew at Wilderness State Park assisting the Ranger sweeping sidewalks, raking the beach, painting picnic tables and other needed tasks. A job coach was able to assess his job skills and his mother worked with local agencies to find Josh a permanent job, but without results. Showing her typical resolve, she put his picture on Facebook with a post that said, “This young man needs a job!”
As with many young people seeking employment, it takes an employer willing to give them a chance. One of Josh’s mother’s colleagues, whose husband co-owns Beards Brewery in Petoskey, saw the post and spoke with her husband, who was willing to give Josh a try. With a job prospect in hand, the summer job coach’s assessment, and Josh’s own desire to work, the local MRS Counselor sought an agency to provide Josh job coaching.
From here there is magic, with people coming together who suspended judgment, practiced patience and understanding, and focused on Josh’s unique strengths, enabling a dedicated and valued employee to emerge. Josh’s Job Coach, Abby, assisted him to learn the job and navigate the social environment and to use his headphones to reduce distractions. More than that, Abby states that working with Josh keeps her grounded, lifts her spirits, and “puts her in a better mood.” She had to gain his trust initially and learn his triggers but now she knows how to reassure him, allowing him to regain his focus on work tasks. Josh does the dishes, loading them onto the rack and putting them away. He sweeps, mops, cleans chairs and tables, and will shovel snow when necessary. His favorite job is folding towels. He knows that Wednesday is “towel day,” 800 of them. He folds them all. He loves to come to work and he is “all out” when he is working. Abby believes you should never underestimate what people are able to do.
Ben Slocum, who owns Beards and hired Josh, thought, “It seemed like something we should do.” Josh had worked in another restaurant setting so he had experience. When Josh was hired, Ben held a staff meeting. His message was clear: This is the owners’ culture and they want to help their community and its members. Josh and his job coach became part of the team at work. His earphones became part of his work uniform. Ben states that Josh was task-focused and there was nothing he didn’t like to do. He worked at Beards from October 2019, until the Governor’s Executive Order required the business to shut down.
Ben wants good things for Josh. Ben believes the other employees are much more mindful with Josh than they are with each other which helps to temper their moods. Ben’s advice to other employers is to be pragmatic and make some adaptations if necessary. He goes on to state further that there is a pool of employees they might be overlooking: “Take a chance. Roll the dice. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try again. The risk is not as great as perceived. If we don’t try, we won’t move forward and make the world better.” This sense of community inclusion and focus on strengths, rather than the disability, is what keeps Josh from being excluded, as so many are.
During March, April and May, the months of awareness, we faced our own separation and what feels like exclusion that people with disabilities so often experience. We can imagine the loneliness and isolation that are lifelong for some, whereas for most of us this is a temporary state of affairs. Many of us have faced unemployment and financial difficulties like the 80% unemployment rate that people with disabilities live with on a regular basis.
As the State of Michigan opens back up, the hope is that we remember our feeling of imposed isolation, exclusion, and perhaps economic insecurity, and that we open up to a focus on the strengths and abilities of those with a mental health, intellectual or developmental disability. This will allow them the opportunity for a sense of productivity, appreciation, and belongingness that Josh and his team have fought so hard to gain for him.