LIFE UNBOUND: Holy Holes, Batman!
Barton and Megan Cutter
A monthly series by S. Barton Cutter
Nine years ago, we were delighted to buy a home in Raleigh that met nearly all of our needs in ways that were certainly beyond our imaginings. Even so, the holes in the wall were inevitable since our hallway is nearly as narrow as the doors themselves, making it difficult to pass through even in my most concentrated periods of driving.
Today, Megan and I have a running bet on who makes the largest holes and how many holes each of us can make. I’m sure this bet will grow substantially, but at the moment I believe both Megan and I are at a fairly even standing with many holes apiece.
Now, you have to understand that when I say “hole” I’m referring to any instance where the force of the impact has broken through both sides of the drywall and left a miniature window into the inner workings of our house. Certainly nothing less than this is worth mentioning.
Perhaps the most amusing incident concerning my wheelchair and our less-than-perfect driving record happened while I was in the bathroom. Megan tried to bring my wheelchair into the bedroom from the hall. I sat patiently and waited as I listened to her drive down the hallway. Once she reached the bedroom door, I began hearing all sorts of bangs and dings against the door frame.
A minute later, there was a loud crash, and I distinctly heard the words, “Oh s**t!”
I didn’t even have time to wonder what happened. Megan and my wheelchair had hurtled across the bedroom floor and slammed into the opposite wall.
“What on earth happened?” I exclaimed.
All Megan could do was laugh, so I sat bewildered, pants down on the toilet, trying to surmise how she managed to ram the wheelchair into the wall. After she got me up off the toilet and into my chair, we both perused the situation.
Clearly, Megan was having trouble getting through our door.
Somehow, she first tore the door itself off its hinges and was laughing so hard at that point that she forgot to remove her hand from the control. Into the opposite wall she careened. In her wake, there was a three-inch by four-inch hole at the base of the wall right above the molding. Absolutely beautiful as far as holes go!
Later on, Megan claimed this entire mishap was due to the differing dimensions between my new wheelchair and the old one she had grown accustomed to driving. According to her, not only was this wheelchair longer and more bulky, but the “combat mode” also provided more umph to its maneuverability. Even so, how this translates directly into tearing a door completely from its hinges, I will never know.
Over the years, it has brought me great joy to watch Megan shift her perspective on what it means to have a beautiful and loving home. Much like my stepmother, she grew up to believe that the physical appearance of a home’s interior was the trademark sign of elegance and beauty.
Excerpt: Ink in the Wheels: Stories to Make Love Roll
© 2013 S. Barton and Megan M. Cutter
LIFE UNBOUND: Directionally Challenged Wife Rescues Lost Husband in Freak Summer Storm
Barton and Megan Cutter
a monthly series by S. Barton Cutter
That headline might be out of a tabloid, or maybe just from our own crazy lives.
We’d just recently moved into our new house, so both Megan and I were still getting acclimated to the streets, directions, and where we were in relation to other places in the community. Unlike Megan, however, I’d been taking an active approach toward exploring our new neighborhood by walking our dog through unknown streets and seeking out interesting ways home.
It was around this time that one of my mornings started with a meeting. As was my normal routine, I awoke early and hopped on the bus to see that I got there on time.
On the way home, however, I was up for a bit more adventure. The day was gorgeous and I couldn’t bare the thought of waiting hours beneath a cement parking deck for the next bus to carry me home. So I ventured out on my own.
It wasn’t long before that I passed an entrance to the Greenway near our home. Greenways are sets of sidewalks that run through parks across Raleigh. I assumed that this was the other end of a portion of the Greenway that I had observed from the bus window just before stopping at the shopping mall where I make my transfers.
I was wrong. As I moved onto the path near the mall, I soon discovered that the Greenway did not connect where I thought it did. Before long I was wandering around a strange neighborhood trying to find my way back to a main road.
Now, Megan is directionally challenged. But after an hour of unsuccessful attempts to get my bearings, I noticed that the bright summer sky had turned ominous and dark. I had to call Megan and ask her to break out a map.
She offered to come get me just as the bottom fell out. Luckily, someone living nearby saw me from his window and came out to offer help. When Megan arrived, he was holding a little umbrella over me, trying to keep me dry, which was not working at all. Actually, the only reason for keeping my wheelchair dry is that when it gets wet, it can have problems. But me out in the rain? I’d play all day!
Before long another neighbor drove by who had a truck. But my wheelchair weighs about 200 pounds. It’s not something anyone can just manhandle. By now a group of people were huddled around me trying to figure out how to get my wheelchair in the truck and the rain was coming down in sheets.
So Megan had to drive back home for the ramp. She put the two pieces of metal in the back of our old Honda, thinking there was enough room if she placed them on the back seat diagonally. She soon found out that the back window couldn’t hold the pressure: It literally shattered when she closed the door.
By now I’m still sitting in the rain with neighbors holding this dinky umbrella over me and Megan is in our driveway cleaning up tiny pieces of broken glass everywhere.
When Megan finally returne, the rain had stopped and the sun was shining so I decided to wheel on home. I still had to follow Megan out of that winding neighborhood.
Sometimes it’s a whole lot more fun not to wait for the bus!
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Curry Creations Gift Boutique To Open In Winterville
“A pathway to lives full of confidence, independence, self-reliance and success.”
Curry Creations, an exceptional new retail gift boutique staffed by adults with autism and other disabilities, will open in late July in Winterville, NC at 113 West Firetower Road, Suite H.
An RHA Howell, Inc., initiative, the shop will carry items handcrafted by residents of the non-profit organization’s group houses in Pitt County. The inventory will include jewelry, artisan pottery, garden ceramics and furniture, artwork, and gourmet dog treats, among other items.
RHA Howell staff members are also contributing to the store’s offerings by transforming
The future Garden Corner
yard-sale-find tables and chests into colorful one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture.
“We are not your ordinary gift shop,” said Program Director Cynthia Stevens, “but an employment opportunity and a pathway to lives full of confidence, independence, self-reliance and success.”
The shop will feature a retail showroom in the front, including a Garden Corner, Doggie Corner, and jewelry display shelves. Behind low dividing walls, the back section will be a workshop for the group homes’ artisans and crafts people to produce Curry Creation’s inventory.
Curry Creations is named to honor JJ Curry, a budding artist and resident at the Tar River Care Center who died in 2011.
The future Doggie Corner
Individuals or organizations interested in partnering with the new shop should contact Stevens at 252-933-0418 (cstevens@rhanet.org) or Marketing Director Debbie Valentine at 919-803-2960 (dvalentine@rhanet.org). For more information the Curry Creations, contact Cynthia Stevens.
RHA Howell, Inc., is a statewide organization that has been serving people with disabilities and their families for nearly 40 years. For more information, visit www.rhahowell.org.
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LIFE UNBOUND: Where The Rubber Meets The Road
Barton and Megan Cutter
A monthly series by S. Barton Cutter
Several months ago, Megan and I participated in The Run for Young here in Raleigh. This annual race honors Sadiki Young, a young man who was killed in a car wreck in which the driver had been drinking. The fundraiser is a reminder for young people to make healthier driving decisions.
Have you ever seen the first scene in “The Intouchables,” the French movie about a man with a spinal cord injury and his support worker? In the first scene, the support worker is speeding down the road, leading police on a chase. When the police catch up with them, Philippe, a quadriplegic, fakes a seizure for a bet with his worker on how fast he could get them out of the situation.
Now, Megan and I haven’t led police on a chase or faked a medical emergency, but I may have gotten us out of speeding tickets a time or two.
And just like in the scene where the caretaker, Driss, is feeding Philippe but gets distracted so that the bite of food lands in his eye instead of his mouth, I have been known to receive more than one French Fry up my nose while being fed by the driver of a moving car.
It’s so easy to get complacent on the road, to forget that, while our cars and SUVs are metal boxes used to get us from place A to place B, they can also easily turn into unintended wrecks and tragic losses. Many times we are too wrapped up in our lives to remember this, so Megan and I were thrilled to be able to participate in The Run for Young.
Not to mention that this was my first 5K ever and I was psyched to burn up the road in my power chair!
I was psyched to burn up the road in my power chair!
We were lucky that the sun came out for the race during that cold winter weather system. I was also excited because I’d always wanted to participate in a 5 or 10K race, but we could never figure out how to get my power chair to the start location, especially on weekends when the buses run less frequently.
As we ran this fun race, I zipped in front of Megan with our dog, Bear, leased to my chair, effectively setting Megan’s pace and taunting her to keep running.
After the halfway mark, I persuaded Megan to jump on the back of my wheelchair to take a break from running. But we were soon reminded by at least three police officers blocking off roads for the race that, yes, we were cheating.
And Karma got us in the end.
I wanted to carry Megan all the way to the finish, so I convinced her to stay on, holding tightly as I made tight curves and hoofed us up a hill. Just before the finish line, however, we tripped a circuit breaker on my chair and ended the race by having to push my now-motorless wheels through the finish line with the help of several amused runners who’d witnessed our antics. In the end of the rce, we were in stitches with poor Bear clearly wondering why we’d slowed down.
With the beauty and fun of summer now upon us, where will you be getting on the road?
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )RHA Howell Names NC Senator Louis Pate Jr. “Legislator of the Year”
For his legislative support for people with chronic health issues and disabilities.
RHA Howell, Inc., a statewide non-profit that has been serving people with disabilities and their families for almost 40 years, recently named North Carolina State Senator Louis M. Pate Jr. “Legislator of the Year” during the organization’s annual Awards Banquet.
Pate has been a member of the North Carolina General Assembly since 1995, first serving in the NC House of Representatives and, since 2010, in the State Senate.
“Senator Pate has championed issues that affect our world,” said Sam Hendrick, President
At the Awards Banquet, left to right: Sen. Louis Pate, RHA Howell Pres. Sam Hedrick
of RHA Howell. “For example, He served as a member of the Medicaid Reform Panel this year. The panel held a forum for stakeholder comment and is now working on plans to better contain Medicaid spending and improve the quality of service delivery.”
Pate is the State Senate’s Deputy President Pro Tempore and represents Lenoir, Pitt, and Wayne counties. He has served as a member of the Medicaid Reform Panel and the Appropriations Committee/Health and Human Services, co-chairing the Health Committee.
During the current 2013-2014 Session, Pate has been the primary sponsor for Senate Bill 596, which established a study commission on TBI services; Senate Bill 98 that requires newborn babies to receive Pulse Oximetry Screening (to identify infants with critical congenital heart defects); Senate Bill 336 to require collaboration among state diabetes programs; and Senate Bill 367 to systematically reform Medicaid, among many other bills.
Born in Duplin County in 1936, Pate received his B.S. and M.B.A. degrees from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. He served as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force for 20 years before entering the private sector and opening a building supply business. A resident of Mount Olive, NC, he served as Mayor of that town from 1991 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2002.
He is also a member of the Wayne County Economic Development Commission, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Rotary Club, and the American Legion.
RHA Howell’s 2014 Awards Banquet took place on May 2 at Garden On Millbrook in Raleigh. For more information on RHA Howell, Inc., visit www.rhahowell.org.
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RHA Howell Names Food Lion “Employer Of The Year”
For its willingness to hire and advance people with disabilities
RHA Howell, Inc., a statewide non-profit that has been serving people with disabilities and their families for almost 40 years, recently named the supermarket chain Food Lion “Employer of the Year” during the organization’s annual Awards Banquet.
Food Lion was recognized for its support of people with disabilities by welcoming them into its workforce at numerous locations, and for giving those employees opportunities for advancement.
Tommy Cox, Program Director for the RHA Howell Employment Services division, thanked the supermarket
Food Lion’s Gary Harmon receives the award on behalf of the supermarket chain from RHA Howell’s Tommy Cox.
chain for “continuously encouraging our clients to strive to reach their individual goals and to have a chance to be a part of the communities in which they live.”
Gary Harmon, manager of the Swift Creek Food Lion in Cary, accepted the award on behalf of the supermarket chain.
RHA Howell’s 2014 Awards Banquet took place on May 2 at Garden On Millbrook in Raleigh.
For more information on RHA Howell Employment Services, visit http://rhasenet.org. For more information on RHA Howell, Inc., visit www.rhahowell.org.
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A Credo For Meaningful Relationships
Written by self-advocates throughout North Carolina
People with disabilities are people just like YOU, but we are often disregarded in terms of our choices to live lives that are full and meaningful. Too many other people make our choices for us out of a desire to overprotect us, make their lives easier, keep us segregated, etc. Life without choices, love and friendship is not much of a life at all. We are lonely, sometimes on the outside looking in at your full lives. Treat us with dignity and respect and we will respond the same. Support us, care about us, even if on a professional level, the way you would want to be. As self-advocates who matter as people first, we want to have meaningful connections with other people with and without disabilities, who share our beliefs, genders and orientations, or even have different ones because being different is what makes us all the same. In terms of love, friendship and a full social way of life in the community:
1. We want to learn about safe and healthy relationships – including friendships and romantic relationships with people of all abilities, genders, values, preferences and orientations that we choose.
2. We want support and education about our bodies, how things work in a healthy way, how to stay healthy, how to choose intimate partners right for us, and how to protect ourselves against abuse, cancer, sexually transmitted diseases and other health risks.
3. We want to learn valuable safety tips for safer dating, connecting with new friends and maintaining contact with family – whether in person or online.
4. We want the marriage penalties that cut benefits off if we choose to get married to be adjusted.
5. We want parents and loved ones to talk openly with us when we ask about making friends, dating, sexual health and safety. If they can’t talk to us, help us find someone who can talk in terms we understand.
6. We want to be recognized as adults, regardless of the challenges we face or others presume we deal with.
7. We want privacy to be alone with our thoughts in our homes and rooms, and with friends and dates. Teach us how to ask staff and family to give us our space once we’ve learned safe and healthy habits.
8. We want to choose our own friends instead of paid staff becoming the only friends we have, and we want to choose who we don’t want to be with anymore, too.
9. We want to become “regulars” at community spots such as the local coffee shop, church, the laundromat, school, the library and other places in the community, so that we can learn how to meet people. Maybe, people will begin miss us and ask about our well-being if we don’t show up on our regular day or time.
10. We want the community to notice us by who we are first. We aren’t solely defined by our disability labels and the staff supporting us doesn’t define us either.
11. We want you to befriend us and be sensitive to us, so we have more people to share our likes and dislikes with. That way, we’ll have more people to tell if something is wrong or we need help.
12. We want better, accessible transportation to get to our friends and out in the community.
13. We want to go to funerals, weddings, family and community functions that are important to us, regardless of inconvenience to staff that seem to have time to take us to the doctor, the store and other service provider appointments. We are part of important family and social circles, too.
14. We want to be able to make our own choices, as well as mistakes, and learn from them without being judged or having our mistakes thrown back at us every time we try to move forward.
15. We want to be heard and know our feelings and opinions matter.
16. We want you to share your good or bad news with us. Don’t assume we won’t understand or it will be too upsetting. We are allowed to have our feelings and express them the best we know how. We can handle it!
17. We want safe, affordable, accessible places to live where both we and our friends can have fun without worries of danger.
We are people first, adults, with wants and needs just like you. Remember that as you care for, support, advocate with, live among and work with us. We have feelings, desires, dreams and wishes for a life with love, friendship and respect. Put yourself in our place before you make decisions about our social and emotional experiences. Think about how you would feel if opportunities to connect with others on a deeper level were taken from you, or your need for companionship denied. That wouldn’t be all right with you, would it? It’s not all right with us. We know what we are missing. We know we deserve these experiences in our lives like others do. Support us, teach us, guide us and help us to be a bigger part of yours and other people’s lives and encourage others to be part of our lives. We have more to offer than you assume.
The NCRI project is funded by the North Carolina Council on Developmental Disabilities. Learn more about NCRI at www.hsri.org/project/north-carolina-relationships-initiative.
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LIFE UNBOUND: “Meeting The Day In Play”
Barton and Megan Cutter
A monthly series by S. Barton Cutter
A couple of nights ago in martial arts class, we were working on a technique that had a particularly light feel. The person with whom I was working was a rather large guy who tends to rely on his muscle to make techniques work rather than relaxation and body mechanics.
At first, I was a little worried about how to make something so light work against a person who appeared to be so sturdy. The first time I did the technique, I felt myself picking up on his tension as I moved in to take him off balance. My teacher came over and watched for a minute. Grabbing a chair and plopping himself into it, he said, “No Barton, try it this way.”
With just as much grace and softness, he dropped the same 200-pound guy with a turn of his head and a bend at the waist. I got a feel for how to maintain that feeling of easy playfulness despite what the attacker was bringing to the interaction and tried again. As I began to incorporate the feel, I noticed that the less effort I put into making it work, the better the outcome.
Toward the end of class, the technique came more easily to me and I began to notice that as I moved and allowed myself to have patience with my own movement, the rigidity and tension in my training partner began to dissolve. There were even a few times where, after he collapsed onto the floor, we looked at one another and wondered how the heck that even happened. All we knew was that one minute he had tried to punch me and the next he was on the ground.
The next morning, Megan and I were chatting about how busy the past few months have been and how there was a feeling that in spite of all we had done, there was still even more to do. And we wondered how on earth we would ever get through it all. Don’t get me wrong, all of this work is dear to both of our hearts and we are completely excited by every facet of it. Yet the sheer quantity of “to-do’s” is at times overwhelming.
All of a sudden, the lesson from the night before flashed in my head. I laughed as I looked Megan deeply into the eyes. “What’s so funny?” she questioned.
I told her what had happened at class and said, “I think it’s the same thing. Somehow we need to drop all of these to-do’s and just play with whatever it is that we’re working on. The to-do’s will always be there. Don’t worry about them getting lost. For now, let’s pick one thing and work on it lightly.”
And so we did. As I suspected, it worked itself out just as the technique in class had the night before. No effort required, just a soft touch and a light heart.
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Excellence in Crisis Response: RHA Behavioral Health & G4S Private Security Crisis Intervention Team Win Award
A project that spun out of a partnership between RHA Behavioral Health (RHA), G4S Secure Solutions, an international security solutions contractor, and Coastal Care, a public managed care entity located in Wilmington, took one of the top awards for excellence at the NC Council of Community Programs (the Council) conference in December 2013.
Each year the Council recognizes projects that strengthen a community’s outreach efforts in supporting people with intellectual disabilities, mental illness, and/or addictive diseases.
The Council recognized the project as a very good example of the kind of collaboration that can render great results for people when diverse groups work together with a unified mission.
The award-winning project was the development of a curriculum for a custom, job-specific, Crisis Intervention Team 
(CIT) training program that would improve G4S employees’ understanding and competence as they engage with people in crisis. The curriculum taught G4S security staff members how to identify and react when they come upon a person experiencing a crisis. It also provided techniques for de-escalation.
Other results were: increased rapport between the project partners and family members, improved rate of stabilization for people receiving care at the crisis response centers and with mobile crisis management, and an enriched experience for people in crisis who benefitted from a more stable, consistent, and therapeutic system.
The program’s training included:
- Signs and symptoms of mental illness, intellectual/developmental disabilities and addictive diseases as well as the incorporation of verbal de-escalation strategies
- A “Hearing Voices” exercise
- Role playing scenarios
- The development of a consumer and family panel.
G4S security personnel have reported that they now feel more comfortable and are seeing much better results when they approach a person in crisis. Consumers and families also have an extra tool at their disposal when they arrive at the Crisis Response Center and G4S personnel now knows how to build rapport with people in crisis, which, in turn, improves the effectiveness of de-escalation efforts. G4S security staff now can escort people seeking long-term treatment directly to a service provider, diverting some emergency room visits.
We are proud of the RHA staff members who took part in this successful project as they help people in their communities with mental illness to lead safer and more stable lives. Many thanks to our partners for helping to make this effort a reality!
RHA provides 24-hours crisis services in the Coastal Care catchment area, including facility-based crisis services, mobile crisis management, and Crisis Response Center.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )RHA Howell President Wins Triangle Business Journal 2014 “Health Care Hero Award”
Sam Hedrick is honored for “improving the care in health care.”
March 25, 2014 (Raleigh, NC) — RHA Howell, Inc., is pleased to announce that the organization’s president, Sam K. Hedrick, received a Triangle Business Journal (TBJ) Health Care Hero Award during a special ceremony held at the Raleigh Marriott City Center on March 20.
RHA Howell is a statewide, non-profit organization that has been providing support and services to children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities for more than 35 years. Hedrick, an attorney and a registered nurse, served as chief operating officer and associate counsel for RHA Howell from 2003 until 2007, when she was named president.
According to TBJ, “This year’s finalists were chosen from a copious batch of nominees
Sam K. Hedrick, President, RHA Howell, Inc.
that the judges combed through, ” including physicians and physician groups, non-physician medical professionals, researchers and health care innovators, nurses, dentists, volunteers, veterinarians, hospitals, and health care managers.
“What this award says to me is that organizations that specifically serve people with disabilities and their families are finally being recognized as part of the health care industry,” Hedrick said. “I am extremely honored and extremely grateful.”
Hedrick received her Health Care Hero Award in the Support Services Executive/Organization category, which honors a specific individual or an organization for their role in “improving the care in health care.”
Hedrick’s accomplishments since she became president of RHA Howell include:
1) She expanded RHA Howell’s long-term care medical expertise into in-home care and case management for adults and children living with complex needs.
2) She spearheaded the WIN (Workforce Investment Network) program, which invests in the education of employees who demonstrate a passion for the work that we do. Through WIN, over 600 employees advanced their careers, received high school diplomas, college, and post-graduate degrees.
3) She created the RESPECT program, which rewards employees for work that advances our strategic goals.
4) She launched the STEP (Safety Through Employee Participation) program that makes safety fun, reduces injuries, and resulted in $600,000 in savings in the first year.
Leah Devlin, a professor at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, introduced Hedrick’s award by first noting her favorite quote from Mahatma Gandhi: “Be the change you want to see.”
For more information on RHA Howell, visit www.rhahowell.org.
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