Week Six: Professional

For one of my classes (Teaching Children with Severe Disabilities) we were asked to attend North Mississippi Regional Centre for ten hours.  NMRC is a centre set up to serve people of all ages who have severe disabilities within the north of Mississippi.  My class attended this centre on two fridays, and I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to experience a place like this. 

 NMRC has over 200 clients at any one time and over 1000 staff.  They are entirely self sufficient with a number of cottages divided depending on gender, age and disability where the clients are well looked after, and in some cases are completely reliant on the staff in their cottage.  The cottages also have life skills classes where clients can learn basic skills, such as grooming and getting themselves dressed.  

More able clients can then attend Stovall an on campus school where they learn everything from numbers and letters to developing basic fine motor skills. I spent a few hours in a class of nine, where each client was doing a different activity according to their needs.  In these classes there where clients as old as forty who just weren’t ready to leave school yet.  Stovall is broken down into various classes depending to ability, and once the client reaches the transition class they are able to leave school and attend Hopkins.

Hopkins is a centre on campus where the clients go to work and earn money.  Local companies pay them to put together, take apart or sort various materials, and there is a recycling plant where they can get paid for simply shredding and recycling paper.  Although these may seem like simple tedious tasks to you and I, in reality they give the clients something to do and a way to earn money themselves.

There is also a centre for senior citizens, where they can decide to go to and relax if they feel that they are not up to working on a particular day.  On campus their is also a doctors, pharmacy, gym, hairdressers, canteen, park and basically everything that the clients could need.  They have a good amount of freedom and are able to come and go over campus as they please, and sometimes they get taken on trips to the Mall or cinema etc.

Over my two fridays there I met many amazing people.  Teachers, nurses and staff who care for the clients so well, and give them the best quality of life possible.  I also met clients with disabilities ranging from being physically disabled, to blind to severely autistic.  I think it is a wonderful thing that these people do and it is a brilliant idea to have somewhere that people of all ages can go to for a short 90 day stay to give their families a break, or to live more permanently.  I honestly never realised places like this existed or could be so effective.

This has definitely been a highlight of my week as I have been able to experience a place where so many people work so efficiently together.  Not only has this helped me develop professionally, it has also helped me develop personally, and realise exactly how many people there are in the world who need our help and support.