Staying Flexible--Week 2

This week was a little different because of the holiday right in the middle of the week.  It was also different because one of my home visits had to cancel and another home visit forgot about our meeting. This is the second time that a family has forgotten about my visit.  I think that because I've already experienced it, I was more prepared to handle it this time.

It was my first visit to a family with a young child with cerebral palsy.  I was going to visit his fifteen-year-old relative who also lives in the home.  When I arrived, though, he was still sleeping.  When I rescheduled, I made it for a later time in the day.  I will also call when I am on my way there next time, because it is about an hour drive from my home.

I had a second home visit on Monday that went really well.  She continued the project we started last week.  We took strips of plaster wrap and made a plaster mold of her hand on an artist's canvas.  She began to paint it this week while we talked about her younger sister's upcoming surgery and the stress levels at home.  At the end of our time together, I realized that I won't be seeing her until August because her mother signed her up for a few camps.  I was glad that her plaster project reached a point where she could continue it on her own, but I was not expecting to not see her for so long.  We've built a nice relationship and she always thanks me for coming and tells me how much fun the art projects are.  I want to thank HER for being so wonderful to work with.

My home visit on Tuesday was cancelled.  I took it as a blessing to get some work done and to catch up on everything at home.  This week was very busy outside of my internship because of the Fourth of July: when I am not at my internship, I am at work at an art gallery.  I've been going pretty constantly so having the afternoon to catch up on things was very helpful.

I've learned that when working with families in their own homes, it is very important to stay flexible.  Sometimes they will forget about my visits, but with such hectic schedules with all different types of people coming in and out of the homes, who can blame them?  Sometimes there won't be much privacy for me to work with whoever I am meeting with, but we do the best we can.  Sometimes they have to cancel, and we just have to set up another meeting time.  Sometimes I will call and call and a family won't answer my messages, so I just have to let it go.