We are excited to announce that Personal Advocate Madalyn Rowell has been honored with a 2010 ARRM Cares Award!
Selected from over 140 nominees, Madalyn Rowell (right) was recognized May 13th as a professional caregivers committed to providing innovative services to people with intellectual, developmental, and/or physical disabilities. Four other outstanding Minnesotans who work with people with disabilities were also selected as winner's of this year's ARRM Cares Award.
Here is the winning nomination submission about Mady...
Madalyn and Andrea sit at the table ready to draw up their plans for the week. They pencil in time each day to plan for exercise, running errands, and determining which household responsibilities need attention. Tuesday they will volunteer for Meals on Wheels. Thursday is the day for working at Fairy Flowers where Andrea’s job is to cut and prepare bridal bouquets. Friday’s routine includes going to a corporate office to pick up the recycling and bring over the recycling center. On Wednesday’s they pair have lunch together.
Andrea was having difficulty with her day program. She was frustrated, turning inward, and having a hard time in the busy, often noisy environment of a large work center. Being bi-polar and suffering from anxiety, this environment would cause Andrea to become agitated and aggressive. Many times, for Andrea’s safety and that of the other participants, more aggressive behaviors resulted in having to employ restraining methods. Andrea was telling us she needed a different approach.
With the consult of her team and at the advice of friends and family, Andrea agreed to try a Day Services at Home plan. Instead of going into the high-input environment of a day program everyday, she would be spending 1:1 time with her own staff, working on things she enjoyed and developing personalized skills for 5 hours a day, and five days a week. This type of customized, structured support has changed Andrea’s life.
Madalyn Rowell has been one of our outstanding advocates at DCI-Kennelly since 2007. For almost a year she had been focusing much of her work on Andrea; learning her unique style, observing how she reacts to various situations and just paying attention and listening. It’s hard to describe it when you see it, but you know when you’ve found a staff person who is the right match for an individual. Madalyn easily and understands Andrea’s unique voice and what she needs. Madalyn understands Andrea's need for a higher level of peace and quiet.
When asked to go full time with Andrea, Madalyn recognized herself as the right candidate. She went to work composing a routine, hour by hour support plan just right for Andrea’s including fun activities that Andrea enjoys like learning sign language, square dancing, and creating beautiful crafts and artwork.
Andrea tells us that she is most comfortable and at ease in an environment where she knows what she is doing for the day, what time she is doing it and how long it will take. Mady responded to this request for more structure.
Since the beginning of the full Day Services support model in August 2009, Andrea has gone from several incident reports a month, to almost none. But most noticibly, thanks to Madalyn’s coordination and structured support, we have heard more wise jokes from our friend Andrea the comedienne, we seen more smiles, we have heard more laughter from her voice and we all believe we are at the beginning of a quite a transformation. Thank you Mady!