NFHC member, Winnie, with her clients and program participants taking a hike through Bethesda Park to promote exercise and staying active.
As a wellness coordinator at the Arc Jacksonville-Downtown, I teach nutrition and exercise classes while encouraging the participants to learn about different healthy foods and ways to improve their overall quality of life. These tasks can be very challenging because the population that I serve, mentally and intellectually disabled adults, requires constant motivation to exercise and most of them do not prepare their own meals at home.
Since starting the service term, Natie* has not been too keen on the wellness program. She requires a lot of motivation to come to the classes and participate in the activities. Sometimes she will start crying, which will often result in her leaving the class. It has been an uphill battle, but I told myself that I would not give up on her – no matter how many times she told me to leave her alone when I get her to come to class or when I try to have a conversation with her about what she is eating for lunch. A couple weeks back, I was making rounds around the workshops and saw her with a couple bags of candy in her purse. I saw this as a teaching opportunity and decided to help her read the food labels on the candy bags. I was met with resistance; this led to an episode of crying and her not wanting anything to do with me. I was pretty discouraged the rest of the day.
About a week later after this incident, Natie came into my office while I was having lunch. She came over and asked, “What are you eating?” “Umm, McDonald’s.” I answered.
Winnie and her clients during their hiking excursion in Bethesda Park.
That’s not good for you,” she replied, shaking her head and with hands on her hips. She went on to tell me how she was having a healthy lunch and that I needed to go grocery shopping so that I would not keep eating McDonald’s because it is not good for me. I was blown away! Was this really the same person who, just a week before, had a meltdown because I was encouraging her to make healthier choices? With a big smile on my face, I told her how proud I was of her. This made my day.
At the end of the day, as this snapshot of my service days has shown, it is the little things that make my service worth it. The small victories amount to a battle won and prove that my service makes a lasting difference in the lives and health of my clients.
*The name of the client has been changed for confidentiality purposes.
