Enrichment Mtg on Helping People With Disabilities
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Enrichment Meeting on Dealing with people who have disabilities
RS: Enrichment Class on Disabled Issues There is a sister in my ward that
cares for a woman confined to a wheelchair. As I was talking to her
last week about the issues the woman faces in dealing with the public
I realized that there is a lot of etiquette concerning people in wheelchairs
that I just didn't know. The thought came to mind that
this would make a great HF&PE class.
The sister agreed to teach it and suggested that the woman she cares
for come and speak, along with someone else she knows that must use
crutches and a brother in our ward who is a paraplegic.
I'm thinking that we should make this the theme for the night.
I need ideas on how to present the topic to the sisters in such
a way that they will want to come and any ideas for associated activities.
One thought I had was to have several wheelchairs and crutches so the sisters
can experience the difficulties first hand and practice what they learn.
Perhaps some sort of service activity to finish it off. I'm
not nearly as creative as a lot of you on this list so please send me
your ideas! Thanks, Janice in Oceanside, California Janice
From: "Janice Ward
Subject: RE: RS: Enrichment Class on Disabled Issues
When I was YW president, we did a joint activity called "handicapped
awareness night." It was much more successful, had better attitude and
participation, than I ever dreamed it would have. My event could be
adapted to use in RS. Here's what we did:
Source of idea: "Scouting Magazine," November-December 1992. article:
"To Help Other People" I can mail you a copy of this article, if you
would like it.
We began the evening with opening exercises and a 15 minute talk/lesson
on physical handicaps. The points I tried to get across were:
1. "The difference between you and me is you can see my handicap but I
can't see yours. We all have them" (A quote from Roger Crawford, a
motivational speaker and professional tennis player with severe deformities
of all four limbs."
2. Disabilities are caused by disease, injury, age and abuse.
3. Disabled people want to be treated like normal people. They need to
maintain their independence as much as possible, and their dignity
always.
4. Physically disabled does not mean mentally disabled.
5. Simple courtesy can help very much. For example, the people I talked
to said doors, especially heavy church doors, are very difficult for
them to open.
We talked about some specific disabling conditions like arthritis, MS,
loss of hearing or eyesight, bunions, strokes and advanced age.
I also discussed, with the help of a poster, the various words used to
describe disabled people: Crippled (not used mush anymore), disabled
(not the same as unable), physically challenged, special needs (the
mother of a severely handicapped child informed me that the child's
needs were not special at all, only different than those of other children
of her age), physically disabled, physically inconvenienced (good
term, but kind of cumbersome).
Next we went to the cultural hall and spent 30 minutes participating in
the activities listed below to make us more aware of some of the difficulties
people have. The kids broke up and rotated from group to group.
1. Put on gloves. Put on a large man's shirt and button it up.
2. Remove shoes. put on socks with pebbles taped to the bottoms. Walk
across the room and back
3. Put on glasses with lenses smeared with Vaseline. Look up your
doctor's phone number in the phone book.
4. Two people insert foam earplugs, then talk to each other.
5. Stiffen knees by splinting with paint stir sticks and Ace bandages.
Try to step up onto a chair, then get down and pick up a newspaper from
the floor.
6. Using crutches and holding up one leg, walk through obstacle course
of chairs, etc.
Cakids wrote: I remember a lesson years ago about a sister who broke
her arm and another sister trying to get the feel of what it was really
like. She put her arm in a sling and couldn't use that
arm for 1 week. It was a real eye opener. I just injured my knee
last week and am limping around -- I am having a great appreciation
for the sisters with chronic physical limitations....it isn't fun!
An idea you might consider is having the sisters try a variety of
activities that they must do without using their arm (right if that's the
arm they use the most) and a leg...try opening a can of fruit
with 1 hand; try picking something up off the floor that has fallen
down; try to sit down with your leg in a bandage--then try to get
up again (the bathroom is really fun! not!) anyway, the sisters would
really get a good idea of how hard it is--every minute of every day!
We take so much for granted when we are healthy! Love and blessings,
Stacey In Clovis,