The Janet Pomeroy Center
“The Recreational Center for the Handicapped”
Descriptions
“The Janet Pomeroy Center”, also known as “The Recreational Center for the Handicapped” has been serving the residents of the San Francisco community for over 50 years. Founded by Janet Pomeroy on November 18, 1952 it has enriched the lives of over 17,000 individuals. It is a multi service center conveniently located off of Skyline Boulevard, over looking Lake Merced and directly behind the San Francisco Zoo. With a wide range of services offered, “The Janet Pomeroy Center” strives to provide recreation and vocational opportunities for the mentally and physically challenged, so as to create and instill independence, personal achievement, and a means for self expression for the disabled population.
Having a variety in age from the youth to the elderly, RCH’s clients also have a wide range in the levels of physical and mental disability. They range from being mildly to severely mentally challenged. There are clients who can easily communicate verbally and others who rely on other methods to express themselves. These individuals also range in their physical disabilities. Some are in need of a wheelchair, where as others are able to easily get around. There are clients who violently have seizures, as well as those whose seizures are generally mild.
“The Recreational Center for the Handicapped” is unique in the fact that it also provides services to those who have had a head trauma. In collaboration with St. Mary’s Hospital and the Department of Mental Health, RCH has started SF TBI NET, which stands for “San Francisco Traumatic Brain Injury Network.” Imagine the tremendous impact it must be living one moment able-bodied, then the next moment, disabled. Imagine the impact an event like this would have on your loved ones. The individuals who benefit from the program were once able-bodied like us, but because of a brain injury, they now need help relearning their motor skills and being able to function in daily life. SF TBI NET also recognizes the strain a traumatic event like this can have on the entire family and provides help and relief to its members.
Rather than focusing on their weakness, the staff focuses on their client’s strengths. Through the different recreational activities and services this multi service center provides, the interests and talents these individuals have are further nurtured. For example, having access to art supplies and instruction is a great benefit to those clients who are interested in further developing their art skills.
In conclusion, “Left Neglected” truly helps one understand the importance of the brain and the massive effects that injuring it can have. An injury itself is life threatening, a recovery may not even occur. Huge life adjustments may need to be made. The brain is the life force for any living animal, and it is important to realize that further understanding the areas of the brain and how they are interconnected in forming the reality in which every human being can see can only help solve problems for people like Sarah Nickerson. For the time being, the first step we can take is prevention and maybe driving a little slower to work when we are on the freeway.
The brain is an incredibly complex organ, but also vulnerable to damage from outside forces. “Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of death, especially in young adults, and a major cause of disability” (Mayer, 2005, p. 483). Accidents can result in forces that jar the skull, causing the brain to strike the skull walls causing bruising or hemorrhaging. In some cases, swelling can lead to herniation in the brain and restricted blood flow that can lead to cognitive impairment. In more severe cases, the result is either a vegetative state or death. Two scales used to measure the severity of TBI are the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), which measures from 3 being comatose to 15 indicating minor trauma based on eye, verbal, and motor responses, and the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS), whose last number indicates severity from 1, which indicates minor injury, to 6, indicating certain death. Violence, car accidents, work accidents, and sports injuries are well known causes of TBI.
During weather events: which forces APCS to close, Charles Barrett Recreation Center will be closed as well. When City of Alexandria offices are open, Out of School Time Program (OSTP) participants in need of care are able to use any of the City’s three regional recreation center (Cora Kelly, Charles Houston or William Ramsey), as long as they’re current participants in the program. Please visit http://alexandriava.gov/ for current recreation closures and cancellations.
What comes into one’s mind when they are asked to consider physical disabilities? Pity and embarrassment, or hope and encouragement? Perhaps a mix between the two contrasting emotions? The average, able-bodied person must have a different perspective than a handicapped person, on the quality of life of a physically disabled person. Nancy Mairs, Andre Dubus, and Harriet McBryde Johnson are three authors who shared their experiences as physically handicapped adults. Although the three authors wrote different pieces, all three essays demonstrate the frustrations, struggles, contemplations, and triumphs from a disabled person’s point of view and are aimed at a reader with no physical disability.
If I could have everyone's attention. Good-morning ladies and gentlemen. For those of you who don't know me my name is Jasmine Davenport. Today I’d like to discuss traumatic brain injury also referred to as TBI. I chose this topic because traumatic brain injury is a serious and complex injury with a broad spectrum of symptoms and disabilities. Traumatic brain injury effects people of all ages and is a major cause of death and disability worldwide. A traumatic brain injury can be caused by a blow or jolt to the head that disrupts normal functions of the brain Also, traumatic brain injury can cause physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioral affects.
Spear, A. (2005) Classroom strategies to use with students following traumatic brain injuries: reading, writing, math, and behavior. Physical Disabilities: Education and Related Services, 63-78.
3) A Comprehensive Functional Approach to Brain Injury Rehabilitation, on the Brain Injury Source web site.
One of my personal goals as a recreation therapist is to leave the patient with a memory, because memories and experiences last a lifetime. Art has been the key to help patients utilize motor skills, use cognitively planning, and to execute art pieces. Besides the benefit of helping patients find a new activity that can help reduce boredom and depression when they return home and have to face their new challenges. Patients in turn have something to brag about, and take home
My objective in the long term is to provide therapeutic and counseling services that assist persons suffering with traumatic brain injury (TBI) or acquired brain injury (ABI) in coping and recovering from the mental illnesses that often accompany such tragedies. TBI/ABI has shown a proven link with “anxiety, depression, personality changes, aggression (National Alliance on Mental Illness Veterans Resource Center May 8, 2009 Traumatic Brain Injury)”, as well as many other issues. As the caregiver for a survivor of a rare and deadly strain of encephalitis, I have a personal perspective that I feel brings much to the discussion. I see the information I am currently gathering at Empire State College as the building blocks that pave the way to a thrilling career in a growing segment of the mental health industry. The CDC claims that approximately 1.4 million Americans suffer TBIs annually (Centers for Disease Control Injury Center May 30, 2007 Traumatic Brain Injury in the United States: Emergency Department Visits, Hospitalizations, and Deaths) and it has been called the “signature injury” of the current wars in Iraq & Afghanistan by the National Alliance on Mental Illness. As such, it is my belief that we need to focus time and energy on developing new programs to help these patients to cope with the new limitations and encourage rehabilitation and restoration.
Although I received proper training and experimented various media when I entered high school, it was also around that time I discovered more about art, including art therapy. Initially, I used to believe that art is something to admires or have aesthetic meanings due to its visually elements. I eventually realized that it plays various roles in different subjects, such as music, filmmaking, psychology, narration, fashion, architecture, nature itself, and more. In terms of art therapy, creativity serves as a different way of communicating by expressing one’s thoughts and feelings, including subconscious factors in visual form. By learning the artwork’s meanings, the process would benefit self-understanding, acceptance, healing, and empowerment.
Brain Injuries are a very serious thing that can affect many people not just the person suffering from the injury. When I was just eight years old I have a very traumatic life changing event happen. My brother who was fourteen at the time got into a very bad accident that sent him flying approximately sixty yard and he landed on his head on the pavement. This was a tragedy for the whole family, it left us in distraught. “Brain Stem Injury” that is the phrase that changed our lives forever.
In life, people are sometimes granted with unfortunate, troubling situations. In some of these circumstances, people lose the ability to complete daily tasks such as brushing their teeth, going to the restroom, getting dressed, doing the dishes, and so on (Choices360). When people get caught here, they need a great quantity of help, and not help from just anybody. Victims of these circumstances could use someone to help them learn skills either for a short period of time while they are gaining back strength from a surgery or an injury, or for a long period of time during which they may be physically and/or mentally disabled. Luckily, there are professionals out there to help people with these conditions; they are known as occupational therapists.
At California State University, San Marcos we have not only hundreds of student programs but also many help services for students as well. One is the Disabled Student Services that any student in need and on campus can be helped. They help a variety of students with physical and mental problems no matter if the term be for a short or long period of times. Disabled Student Services, also known as DSS, is located inside Craven Hall. One who is highly qualified to help these students is Michelle Diaz, who changed my opinion on how CSUSM helps all of their students.
According to Shankar, Mortenson, & Wallace (2015), power recline wheelchairs enable user control. This promotes autonomy as it enables clients to take control of their own reclining schedule and influences comfort and sitting tolerance. Yet, many individuals with cognitive impairments are automatically denied access to wheelchairs with power recline functions (Shankar, Mortenson, & Wallace (2015)
In many hospitals around the world, patients in the adult Neurological ICU experience a low quality of life and the hospital staff has limited resources to monitor the patients. Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, patients are recovering in an environment where they have monotone environments and have limited movements. The patients can experience cases of depression, disrupted sleep cycles, or have longer recovery times. Recently, I was able to attend the Heads in The Game Research program at the University of Mississippi to research solutions to help TBI patients in the Neuro ICU. I worked alongside 6 undergraduate researchers with a partnership with Cspire and the UMMC, a hospital that has co-ops with the University of Mississippi. During my