- Jacque wanted Jill to choose because we believe that the ability to choose defines who we are, and our mission is to help clients discover that.
- Jacque was new to her position as Household Director, having been recently promoted. Each household at LBSA has 6 clients and between 6 to 15 staff.
- Jacque describes herself as “totally into the happy stuff – being positive. Also, Jill is very dear to me – it makes my day when she recognizes me and maybe even says my name. “
- Jacque had learned that as a Household Director she needed to help clients make choices, and feeling as she does about Jill, wanted to invent the method.
- Jacque: Anyone else might think it’s only a 50 calorie, 3:00 PM fruit snack. But this is a real person, Jill, and it is food, and she loves food, and why would I want to give her something she wasn’t fully excited about? I know she really likes pears – peaches not so much. I want her to choose, but to choose what she actually wants. How to get her to make an informed decision?
- She tried number of things. Peaches in one container, pears in another – set on table, give Jill spoon. She ate both.
- Jacque: “I was trying to be creative, trying to wrap my brain around it. It’s simpler to just make decisions for the clients. It’s all too easy to say, ‘I know he wants the apple sauce – he always loves it.’ Or, ‘I know she wants to have this exercise tape played.’”
- Jill is crazy about eggs. She says the word independently. “Eggs, eggs, eggs, eggs.” She knows what the word means – she knows what eggs are!
- Jacque: “If you wake Jill in the morning and tell her that she’s having eggs for breakfast – so she’ll have a happy morning – and she gets to the table and discovers there are no eggs, she will be completely ticked off.”
- So even though it’s supposed be a fruit snack, Jacque or the staff person prepared eggs and offered real and obvious choice of either hot eggs or cold cup of pears. They are very different and she likes them both.
- For two months, always eggs at 3:00 snack – not working. Jacque: “I said stay with it, be patient. Eggs, eggs, eggs. Finally, Jill began to sometimes choose pears. It made me real happy.”
- Jacque says she learned how we all take making choices for granted, how we have so much freedom to choose don’t think about it, yet how important it is.
- Jacque: “I take it seriously – being a mentor. I’m a role model for clients, yes, but also for staff. I now understand that most people don’t realize how important choice is, so I help my staff keep it in mind and keep thinking about it.” LBSA invests heavily in staff training, but in the end, it’s the one-on-one mentoring that creates the most growth in staff, in our experience.
Jacque has taken the time to learn the private language used by Jill. She says that if she is to communicate at all, she must speak in Jill’s language, even to the point of using the same kind of voice and inflection.
Jill moved to a different household for a couple of years, but then was scheduled to move back to Jacque’s household. All the staff held their breath, not sure if Jill had retained her lessons. When Jill got home from work, she came into the kitchen and said “Cheese!” triumphantly.
Jacque doesn’t mind the time it takes to learn from the clients. Her supervisors say the only problem they have is getting her to go home. Jacque is the kind of person who makes her own choices.
Now, so is Jill.
