{"id":10329,"date":"2021-02-12T09:27:19","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T14:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/old.clgw.ca\/Admin\/?p=10329"},"modified":"2021-02-12T09:27:47","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T14:27:47","slug":"how-a-little-dreaming-can-change-everything-a-day-services-and-residential-support-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.clgw.ca\/Admin\/2021\/02\/12\/how-a-little-dreaming-can-change-everything-a-day-services-and-residential-support-story\/","title":{"rendered":"How a little dreaming can change everything – A Day Services and Residential Support Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Laura Kirk, with collaboration from Paul Smook, Sarah Crawford and Jessica Martin<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel lonely. Nobody talks to me. I don\u2019t want to go to ARC anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When these words were spoken by a person supported about a year ago, staff listened. We visited him at ARC a few times to see how he was spending his days and to better understand what was engaging him. The truth of the matter is, Paul was not happy there anymore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was imagining a life outside the building that was once an integral part of his daily routine, but over the course of a several months had become less and less important to him. Paul needed a change. Slowly, Paul began asking if he could just \u201cstay home to relax\u201d and we begun reducing the hours he spent at ARC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

However, it seemed Paul did not have any ideas for his future. When asked specifically, how he\u2019d like to be spending his days, he would often shrug his shoulders and say, \u201cI don\u2019t know. I\u2019ll just stay home.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We began helping Paul with dreaming<\/em><\/strong>. This meant that we would explore some themes that seemed important to him. Paul wanted to take the bus.  Go places. Work or volunteer and meet some new friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul began volunteering at a local retirement home where he would be a friendly visitor. He learned the bus route, practiced it a few times with staff and then started taking it on his own and meeting staff there. He had some staff support to help him meet new people, learn his role and get him comfortable with doing this on his own. It took Paul about 6 weeks to feel ready to go on his own! Paul was a bit nervous at first but eventually, he developed some new friendships and spoke so happily about playing chess and reading to some of the seniors. It was a bright spot in his day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul now enjoys a balanced week which includes volunteer work, an afternoon at Action Read with tutoring, taking the bus and visiting the Kitty Caf\u00e9, where he would enjoy treating himself to a peppermint tea and a visit with one of his furry feline friends. Paul can\u2019t wait to return to the retirement home when it\u2019s safe to do so!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, we asked Paul if there\u2019s anything else he\u2019d like to do in the future. Paul said that he’d like to join a gym and get an office cleaning job, so he can make some money are his new goals. We are excited about helping him reach for the stars! There are so many great things Paul can do in the Guelph community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This past week, Paul tapped into his artistic talents and has made a new connection\/friend with a local artist who will be offering him one to one art lessons on Zoom. Paul was excited to order his supplies and get his paint brushes ready! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are so excited for Paul, and can’t wait to see where he wants to go next!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Laura Kirk, with collaboration from Paul Smook, Sarah Crawford and Jessica Martin<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel lonely. Nobody talks to me. I don\u2019t want to go to ARC anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

When these words were spoken by a person supported about a year ago, staff listened. We visited him at ARC a few times to see how . . . → Read More: How a little dreaming can change everything – A Day Services and Residential Support Story<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-staff-info","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.clgw.ca\/Admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.clgw.ca\/Admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.clgw.ca\/Admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.clgw.ca\/Admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.clgw.ca\/Admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10329"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/old.clgw.ca\/Admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10334,"href":"https:\/\/old.clgw.ca\/Admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10329\/revisions\/10334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.clgw.ca\/Admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.clgw.ca\/Admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.clgw.ca\/Admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}