At the end of my fall 2019 semester, I obtained a job at the Harry Meyering Center (HMC) right off of campus in Mankato. Here, I worked as a Direct Support Professional (DSP) for adults with disabilities. This was an amazing experience where I was introduced to, and learned about an entire new population of people: those with mental and physical disabilities or diseases.

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My job as a DSP was to give care to these residents and make their lives as enjoyable as possible. I assisted with mealtimes and fed residents who were unable to do so themselves, bathed residents, toileted residents, helped residents make purchases or took them out into the community, passed their medications, and so much more. Some shifts even consisted of me simply reading to or coloring with them.

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The 5 months that I worked at HMC before moving home for summer were challenging, yet SO rewarding. I learned new methods of communication; some residents were non-verbal, so learning to interact with them was like learning a whole new language. I learned about this culture, and how they deserve to be treated just like any other person would. I learned that they still have a voice, even when they cannot speak. But mostly I learned that they are just like me. They want to live their lives to the fullest and enjoy every moment.

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I believe that this experience helped me to meet level 1-4 in 'self-awareness.' Level 1 was met because after obtaining this job, I realized that disabled adults and I live in the same culture. Interacting with some of these individuals on day one allowed me to understand that they are a large portion of each community, and that we all live together as one in today’s growing society.

 

I met level 2 when I realized that I had never really been around a community of people like these individuals; I always had underlying biases that disabled people maybe weren’t as big of a piece of society as other people, like myself, were – which is very sad to think about now, especially as I am working towards professional goals that encompass everybody. As a physician, I will be tasked with caring for people of all cultural backgrounds, and this experience really proved to me that not one person is any better or less than another, and that I have no room for personal biases like these in my future workspace. I wasn’t used to being surrounded by this culture every week, let alone interacting together. I realized that I had always sort of viewed their cultural group as “lesser” until I got to know them and had the privilege of helping them live the same happy life that I do.

 

Level 3 was met because I was able to create a new perspective about cultural rules and biases; I learned that disabled individuals are way more capable than what most of society thinks. I began to respect them much more and tried to treat them as if they were not defined by their disabilities. I was then able to compare and contrast their culture with my own, and of other groups of people with different disabilities.

 

Level 4 was met because I was definitely able to perceive my own prejudices and habits of mind while working here. As mentioned above, I (sadly) always had an underlying prejudice that people with disabilities were somewhat lesser than people without disabilities, not that I ever intended to put people with disabilities down, but this prejudice could almost always be found in the back of my head. Having this initial prejudice while working with these individuals allowed me to become aware of my prejudices and try to reshape them. I definitely do not understand what it is like to be a disabled individual, but I sure did learn a lot about them as individuals and pieces of the same society that I live in. I learned to give them the credit they deserve after getting to know them and some of their amazing abilities, such as new, unique communication methods, new physical methods to performing daily tasks, and all of the different ways that emotions can be expressed both physically and verbally. These skills were some that I didn’t encompass myself but learned along the way in order to better communicate together with my individuals. These skills also taught me patience, creative strategies for getting to know someone better, and that there isn’t a “correct” or “perfect” method to anything in the world. Every single individual in the world is different, and different doesn’t always mean bad or lesser than.

 

I also believe that I met 'communication' Level 1; working here allowed me to gain a better understanding of how non-verbal individuals communicate with one another, and other verbal people. Prior to working here, I had never interacted with someone that was non-verbal, so this experience was new and broadened my horizon in new communication methods. ​

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