Setting up the Cafeteria for lunch...Another Important Job at Brookwood!

Our citizens eat lunch in the Cafeteria every day during the work week.  Using methods from TEACHH (Treatment and Education for Autistic & Communication-Handicapped Children), adapted for use with our adults with disabilities by Carol Whitmore, Director of Education, each table has placemats unique to each citizen featuring their name, photograph, special dietary needs, acceptable beverages, and also pictures of items that that particular citizen likes (such as a football, movie star, mountain, or books.)  This serves as a visual cue for each citizen, but also provides a point of reference for the cafeteria servers or guests, who could easily start a conversation with that citizen about something they like from the pictures on that placemat.  (See photo below.)

 

This program works very well.  However, the Cafeteria (or "Cafetorium" as we call it) serves multiple purposes each day.  It is our auditorium for presentations.  It is our gathering room for citizen socials.  It is a work room for large projects.  It is where the staff breakfasts and volunteer luncheons happen.  Therefore, the placemats are constantly being removed and replaced with care, and that takes time and attention.  Also, the tables must be set up for the citizens' lunches Monday through Friday.  This important job is often performed by our citizens, who take great care in setting up the places each day for lunch. The following pictures show our citizen, Rick, setting up for lunch today.

 

 

 

 Thanks Rick, you do great work for us here at Brookwood!

 

(...By Beth Self, Blog Author)