Newsletter for May 2006 Volume 3 - Issue 5 - Page 1

Director's Notes
Ladeska (Decky) Makings
It's once again time to get out the repellent and sunscreen - summer is almost here and plans for camping, fishing, swimming and other forms of warm weather fun and relaxation are being made. I hope you will include our annual appreciation dinner in your summer plans. This year's celebration of another successful year will be at Vet's Park for dinner and good company on Friday, July 14 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. We have also reserved the Wetlands Waterpark from 7:00 to 9:00 so you can pick up a ticket for a free swim when you join us for dinner.

Thought you might be interested in some numbers from the first quarter of this year - they are always surprising to many people.

     * We served 138 individuals in Community Supports and
        Case Management
     * 102 in our day employment, therapy and community
        access programs
     * 20 were involved in community placement services
     * Individuals work part-time on 49 different contracts for
        29 businesses and are ensured work is available while at
        the Plant (even when production is slow we provide paid
        work in facility improvements, etc.) resulting in a client
        payroll as of mid-April of $63,229. Many earn amounts
        resulting in a significant reduction in reliance on
        Medicaid dollars and a great sense of self-esteem and
        heightened pride in their self-reliance.
     * 32 people benefited from our therapy, educational,
        community access, &/or retirement day services
     * Processed 690,400 pounds of recyclable materials
     * Worked with 188 businesses in our area pick-up service
     * Provided supports in 42 locations to the 65 individuals in
        our residential and supportive home care services (staff
        worked 76,271 hours in our residential locations alone)
     * At the end of the quarter there were 161 staff positions
        (staff payroll through mid-April was $1,060,282)
     * Medical services facilitated 262 appointments and
        28,272 medication administrations were successfully
        accomplished.
     * Our General Public Transportation system ran 85,175
        miles to provide 13,159 rides for the people served here
        at Sunflower and for a large number of community
        members who also rely on our system for their basic
        transportation needs).

As you can see we manage to stay pretty busy around here - and as always I am amazed at the accomplishments of the people we work for and the staff that serve them.

Independence and Control: When asked, most people will define independence as "being able to do everything for one's self" and say that they are independent. By that definition we would be performing our own medical treatments, building our own homes and cars, growing our own food... none of us can claim that kind of 'independence'. This definition has historically been used as the determining factor in whether persons with disabilities are ready to go out into the world to live and/or work on their own or with significantly reduced supports. If required to meet this 'independence' standard it would be an extreme rarity for any of us to ever leave our parent's home. There is a high level of interdependence, with a wide variance in level of supports, required for any of us to live and succeed in the world. The skills necessary for success in life are best developed in the places we choose to live and work - not in artificial 'home like' or 'work like' environments where so many individuals with disabilities are 'stuck' trying to achieve unattainable prerequisites of ability to perform independently. Independence is truly about having control in your life, learning to understand the responsibilities of that control by learning how to make responsible choices, and deciding how and by whom supports to meet our own individual needs will be delivered.

Real growth happens when an individual with disabilities whose entire life has been controlled by others comes to understand that they truly can take control by deciding where and with whom they want to live, where they want to work, or, as is the case when the disability is most profound, it may be as simple as taking charge of which arm their staff should assist into a sleeve first. No matter how severe the disability everyone should be supported in learning to exercise as much control as their capabilities allow and we must constantly guard against underestimating an individual's potential. When working towards services that are truly based on client