Tony and Lillian's First Meeting
Tony and Lillian's First Meeting
Lillian: Hi, Sharon, Hi, Tony. Come on into my office and we can get ready for the meetings. How are you, Tony?
Tony Boyd: Good. I'm good.
Lillian: Well, I'm glad to hear it. How are things at school?
Tony: OK. I went to a swim meet yesterday.
Lillian: How did you do?
Tony: Pretty good. I came in third in the fifty. So that was pretty good.
Lillian: That's very good. I bet I couldn't do that well. Are you ready to meet with some people today? They are going to talk about how they can help you find a job for after you graduate.
Tony: Yep.
Lillian: Sharon, are you ready?
Sharon: I think so. I went over the topics and questions you and I talked about, about their success rates, number of clients, services, average time to find a job - all those things. So I think I'm ready to hear what they have to say. Now I did have one question. Do Tony and I have to make a decision today? Can we think it over for a while?
Lillian: No, not today, but you'll want to decide pretty soon the agency that you pick will have plenty of time to start providing services before Tony's graduation.
Sharon: Now will they just start looking for a job as soon as we decide on an agency?
Lillian: It will depend on the agency and the kind of services they provide, but no, most of them will want to do a Situational Employment Assessment - which is when they will take Tony around to some of the places he has worked, or to other places with different kinds of jobs, and watch how he handles the tasks, how he interacts with other people, what sort of things he does well, what things give him some trouble - that sort of thing. So they will probably at least want to do that.
Sharon: And will those be like job interviews. If he does well at one of the places, will they hire him on?
Lillian: No. These are just for assessment. These are places where the different agencies have arrangements with the owners to let various people come in and try out some of the jobs for assessment, but the owners are not expected to hire any of the people. That comes later in the process. In addition to the Situated Employment Assessment, some of the agencies like to do formal vocational assessments at their facilities. These are more structured. So they might, for instance, have a model office in which Tony could try different tasks, or they could see how he does handling computer programs and things. Or they might have a try him on some of the skills for a working in a commercial laboratory and things. So the amount of vocational assessment may vary among the different service providers. That's something you will want to ask them.
Sharon: And after that they start the job hunt.
Lillian: Basically. Once they have finished their assessments, we will all sit down together and have what is called a "staffing" meeting, where we will look at their conclusions about Tony's skills and support needs, and we will decide what kinds of jobs they should pursue for him. That part of the program is called job development, but it is basically a job hunt that they will do for him. At that point he will do some interviews, or possibly working interviews where he will go and try out the jobs and talk to the employers. But there will always be a job developer accompanying him to those interviews in case there is any confusion. And, also at the staffing, we will start talking about what sort of support, like a job coach or accommodations, Tony might be interested in. So today we will start the process that will probably include all those things: a situated employment assessment, possibly a vocational evaluation, a staffing meeting, job development, and possibly job supports. That's just so you can be clear on the order of things people might talk about today.
Sharon: OK. And who will be here today? Is Tony's case manager coming over, or any of the folks from the school?
Lillian: No, not for this meeting. They were in our last meeting because we were just talking about whether VR was the next move for Tony and how it would fit his other programs. But the decision about which agency to go with is something you and Tony will decide. We'll have his teacher and case manager in on some of the other meetings, like the staffing meeting, when we make some more of those sort of "strategic" decisions for Tony. But today it's just us meeting with the representatives from the three main placement agencies in town - Medallion, Glenbrooke, and Community Training Incorporated. They will each come in at different times so you can talk to each.
Sharon: Well, I know Tony is kind of excited about it. He was talking in the car on the way over here about how he was going to get a job.
Lillian: Well, Tony, we probably won't get you a job today, but we'll start getting ready for you to have one.
Tony: Good. Because I'm going to be graduating at the end of this year, and I'll need a job then.
Lillian: And we're going to find you one. Well, let's get the paperwork going on all the paperwork we need to do. That will include Tony's official application for VR service, and eligibility form, medical health questionnaire, financial questionnaire, and the release to let us get Tony's school medical records so we can formally establish his eligibility. And Mary Layton from Medallion should be here in about twenty minutes to talk to us about their services.
Sharon: Well let me ask you one more thing before we get started on that. I know we talked last time about what VR does, in terms of helping Tony decide on some career goals and get any training he needs to meet those goals. What if he wants to go to college? I mean, I know we would have to find a college that accepts students with Down's Syndrome, but if we found one, would VR help with that?
Lillian: Well, it depends. VR will do whatever we need for Tony to meet an appropriate career goal that he chooses - which means one that he could do with reasonable accommodations, would enjoy, and could reasonably expect to be successful in. Once we have decided on that, VR will help with whatever he needs for that. But the only reason for him to go to college would be to pursue a career that required a college degree. Right now, I don't believe Tony is thinking about anything like that. I don't think any of us have clear ideas about what Tony's career choices might be. That's part of why we are going to have one of the agencies help him with some assessments and, you know, just his thoughts about different jobs.
We aren't going to steer him away from college, but right now I don't see any reason to steer him towards college either. So I don't know that this is the time to really start worrying about a possible college career for Tony.
Sharon: I see. So there could be VR help, but only if that seems like a serious career need for Tony?
Lillian: Right. Tony's quite a guy, from what I've seen, with a lot of dreams. Right Tony?
Tony: I guess so.
Lillian: And we don't want to sell him short on any career possibilities, but we also don't want to force him into college unless he needs to be there. Also we don't want to send him to college unless he has a reasonable opportunity for success there. So I think we should see what the vocational evaluations turn up and what his school records indicate, and then see where we stand.
Sharon: OK
Lillian: Also, remember that, even if Tony gets a job that doesn't need a college degree, if later on that career doesn't work out for him, he can come back to VR and see about further options - as long as those reasons are related to his disability. So you are not tied down to the decisions you make during this process. We can always change things.
Sharon: OK. Well that makes me feel better.
Lillian: Well, good. And always feel free to ask about things like that. Now, let's get started on some of the paperwork.
Name of Client: Tony Boyd
Person Contacted: client, client's mother, Mary Layton (Medallion), Megan Stewart & Allison Essner (Glenbrooke), & Lisa Harms(CTI)
Contact Made: Office
Date/Time of Contact: 1/3/97 9:30am
The client is an 18 year old male with Down's Syndrome and Mental Retardation. He has only had 1 job in his life working at Pets-R-Us cleaning up after the animals.
He currently is a last semester senior at Kenilworth High School, and will graduate this June. I explained the process of declaring eligibility in 60 days and we completed the paperwork.
The client's mother stated that she wanted to know if college would be an option if they could find a school that would take students with Down's Syndrome. I told her at this time, I did not think this would be appropriate but we could discuss it more once I received paperwork from the high school.
At 10:15, Mary-Medallion came and explained Supported Employment (SE) through their agency. She stated that the Supported Employment Assessment (SEA) would take 3-4 weeks depending on the client's interests and the employers openness to have an assessment done at their facility. The client had stated he was interested in working in a Police Department or being a lifeguard. The mother wanted to know if they had a pool of jobs to fit clients into. Mary explained that they try to find a job for each individual. The mother asked the agency how they were different from the other two. Mary said she felt her agency was different in that they had training programs to fit the clients needs. We also asked how soon they could start the SEA, and Mary said that they could start right away. When the agency was asked how their placement records were, the client said that she had 7 people in job development and she had placed 4 of them in the last 3 months.
At 10:45, Glenbrooke came and explained their services to the client and his mother. Megan & Allison started their presentation off with showing the video of Glenbrooke. Allison said the SEA would take about 2 weeks. They explained that they were different from the other agencies in that they let the client select their own job coach. Also, Glenbrooke stated that they were different in that they were now sending out weekly letters to the client showing where the client's job coach had gone for job development when the job coach wasn't with the client.
Glenbrooke could start the SEA on 1/27/97 if the client selects their agency. When the mother asked how long the process took, Megan stated that it would depend on the interests found during the assessment. Glenbrooke did not have a list of employers they work with for the mother to contact. Lastly, Glenbrooke stated that they make accommodations on their job sites so, the client can always do their job.
At 11:15 am, Community Training, Inc. (CTI) came to explain their services to the client. Lisa explained their services and the pamphlets enclosed in their packet. She also explained that they would have the client do an intake interest inventory which was pictorial. Lisa stated that it would take CTI 3-4 weeks to complete an assessment. When CTI was asked how they differed from the other agencies, Lisa stated that this was a hard question. And no solid answer was ever given. The mother wanted to also know how long the process would take, and Lisa stated that 5-6 months; 3-4 for SEA, and 2 for Job development. When CTI was asked what population they served, she explained the various groups of people they have assisted. She also stated that all their job coaches were medically certified. The SEA with CTI could start ASAP. According to Lisa, they currently serve 63 individuals, and in the last 3 months, they have placed 10 people.
At the end of this tour, the mother & client thanked me for my time in arranging this as soon as I could. She told me that she would assist the client in selecting a provider, and once a decision was made, she would contact me.
Open case, get school records from Kenilworth and wait to hear from client regarding the SE provider selected.
Signed: Lillian Thoms, Senior Counselor
Name of Client: Tony Boyd
Person Contacted: client's mother
Contact Made: phone
Date/Time of Contact: 1/10/97 9:24am
The mother told me that they selected Glenbrooke, because they do job coaching and they brought the director and the job developer. I told the mother that I was still waiting for the school records to declare the client eligible. The mother told me if I didn't get it from the school, she could provide me with a copy of his most recent IEP and diagnostic summary.
Contact Glenbrooke after eligibility declared to start SEA.
Signed: Lillian Thoms, Senior Counselor
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