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OFFICE OF HANDICAPPED CONCERNS
WILL'S CORNER, OKLAHOMA
(Serving the Disability Community of Oklahoma)
Volume 8, Issue 3
July, 2007
THE CASEY SMITH STORY
9 a.m. October 12, 2003
“He is bleeding badly from that right leg. Get that blood
stopped or we’re going to loose him. Thank God we are only a few
minutes away. Young lady, you’re going to have to calm down.”
(Screaming) “Is my boyfriend going to be all right?”
“Do something for us, call his family and let them know to meet
us at Loma Linda ER. Just call, OK.”
“Mr. Smith, it’s about Casey. He’s been hit by a car . . .
(losing it). He’s been hit by a car on the off ramp of the #10.
They’re taking him . . . I think they said Loma Linda ER. (phone
goes dead).
(vascular surgeon) 11 a.m., Loma Linda
“These guys can’t pump enough units of blood into him fast
enough. We’ve got a decision to make real quick. We’re going to
have to take that leg.”
(Lynda Smith, Billy Smith) “Do whatever you have to.”
Thus began a drama in Redlands, California on what started out
to be a quiet Sunday morning when a young man by the name of
Casey Smith stopped at the scene of an accident and ended up
himself hit by a car making what was estimated to be 65 mph.
Casey thought he had his life ahead of him. He had a loving
family, a girl friend, a promising career as a professional
boxer. Things were looking great until his whole life changed in
an instant.
Doctors were able to stop the bleeding by amputating his right
leg, but they were not able to repair the injury to Casey’s
head. You see, Casey Smith suffered a traumatic brain injury
when he was hit by that car, and he didn’t wake up for three
months.
Casey and his family were determined that his accident and
disability would not be the last word in his story. Given the
trauma involved, most people would have died as a direct result
of the injuries sustained from being hit from this speeding
vehicle. Casey and his family were doing lots of positive things
that helped to change the outcome in his situation. A lot of
circumstances worked in Casey’s favor as well.
What circumstances, you say. Well, first of all a major trauma
center in southern California was only minutes away from the
scene of the accident. The first accident (the accident where
Casey stopped to render help) already had an ambulance on the
way when he was injured. Critical time was saved which made the
difference between life and death.
Some other circumstances—Terry Reynolds who knew Casey and his
family and was a trauma nurse at the Loma Linda emergency room
just happened to be on duty that day when Casey arrived. She was
invaluable to him and his family in shuttling information
between his medical team and his family. This reduced some of
the uncertainty and shock at what was happening.
A third circumstance which worked in Casey’s favor was the
nature of his parents—Billy and Lynda Smith. They kept cool
heads in circumstances where many people would panic. As I
interview Casey this afternoon, I see that Linda and Billy Smith
are almost as much a part of this story as Casey himself. You
may ask how?
Lynda Smith, Billy Smith, brother and sister (Beau and Melissa)
never left Casey for one moment at Loma Linda Hospital. Casey
had family around the clock every day for over seven weeks. When
one family member had a spare moment, they were researching
about traumatic brain injury and what Casey’s needs were.
Lynda found out that one of the latest theories on the internet
underscored that people who are unconscious are able to hear.
Family members talked to Casey continually even though he was
outwardly unresponsive. They played tapes of some of his high
school football games and maintained the mental stimulation
although they got precious little response for all their
efforts. The precious little response seemed discouraging at
first, but over time that scenario changed.
One day Billy Smith was in the room with his son moving his left
leg to exercise it. The leg countered his efforts, and Billy
Smith knew that his son was responding in a small way. Casey
Smith was beginning the long road back to consciousness, and his
family redoubled their efforts.
In the meantime, Billy Smith scouted out a new beginning for the
family in Oklahoma. Billy had Oklahoma roots, and Lynda Smith’s
mother had moved to Guthrie. Billy Smith had been hearing lots
of good things about the Jim Thorpe Rehabilitation Hospital in
Oklahoma City. He found out that it was easier to get in to see
a doctor in Oklahoma than where they lived in California. Also
Billy checked out an Oklahoma company which fit people with
prosthetic legs. He had heard of the company back home and
researched how they would be able to help Casey.
You see, Casey had been measured for a prosthesis in California,
but it never fit right. Casey didn’t seem to be improving in
California after he reached a certain plateau. The family had
greater visions for their son, and they moved to central
Oklahoma about eight months ago. The Smith family reports that
Casey has made progress at Jim Thorpe which he never did back in
California. He also has a new artificial leg which fits much
better than his original, and he can take steps with the aid of
a walker. Is there more? Well, that really depends on Casey at
this point. He has a goal to be able to walk again, and you
know, after seeing this young man’s determination to get where
he is now, I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens.
Casey Smith wants to do motivational speaking, and he wants to
share his story with other people. I must say he has convinced
me that there is life after acquiring a disability. He is
building a life which includes the limitations which he has
experienced. Isn’t that what all of us are doing?
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Casey and his family were determined that his accident and
disability would not be the last word in his story.
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OHC web site:
www.ohc.state.ok.us
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Persons with Disabilities Employment Program
(House Bill 1340)
If you are a person with disabilities and are interested in
going to work for the State of Oklahoma in some capacity, House
Bill 1340 may be information helpful to you. HB 1340 was passed
by the Oklahoma Legislature in 1987. It gave state agencies the
option of waiving entrance examinations for applicants with
disabilities. Another important advantage in being certified
under HB 1340 is that an applicant with disabilities can be
hired without going onto the registry and can be hired before
the job is posted for statewide recruitment. These things can be
an advantage for the person with disabilities, but it requires
going through the process to be certified under the provisions
of the bill.
First you must obtain a letter from the State Department of
Rehabilitation Services stating that you are a person with
disabilities. You do not have to be a client with Rehabilitation
Services in order to request this letter. You may call the DRS
state office (800-487-4042) to find out the nearest DRS office
to you and contact information in order to complete this first
step in the process of getting certified under HB 1340.
Now that you have your letter from DRS certifying you as a
person with disabilities, you will want to determine what state
jobs you want to apply for. If you live in the Oklahoma City
area, you may want to visit the Office of Personnel Management
in the basement of the Jim Thorpe Building immediately southeast
of the State Capitol. For the many of you who are out of the
central Oklahoma area, you may also go to the website of the
Office of Personnel Management (www.opm.state.ok.us) and find
the information on every job the state has in classified
service. Click on HR and Employee Services and scroll down to
Job Family Descriptors. If possible, narrow your interests as
you approach these many listings.
You do not have to wait for a job that is open for recruitment
to apply for a job family. On each job application, write HB
1340 on the upper right hand corner of the application. If you
are willing to test for the position, write “will test”
underneath HB 1340. If you are certified under HB 1340, it is
your option whether or not to test for any position. Fill out
one application for each job family you are applying for.
The next step in getting certified under HB 1340 is to submit
the completed application and a copy of the certification letter
from the Department of Rehabilitation Services to the
Recruitment Division of the Office of Personnel Management. Mail
this information to the address at the top of the application.
You will receive a letter from OPM certifying that based on
their review you are qualified or not for the position(s) for
which you applied. Now you are ready to approach the Human
Resources department of individual agencies to locate vacancies.
You will need to have copies of the DRS disability certification
letter and the OPM job certification letter for each job
opening.
So how do you know which agencies employ the job families which
you are qualified for? This will take some effort on your part.
In the blue pages of your telephone book you will find a listing
for state agencies located in your service area. Call to find
out if they employ anywhere in their service the job family you
are wanting. Check the OPM website mentioned earlier for job
openings. You may be seeking a position which is found commonly
in all state agencies, or you may be seeking a position which is
used at only one location in one particular agency.
When you have located an agency which does employ your job
family, find out the name of the human resource manager. Go to
the agency calling for this person by name and be prepared to
present this person your DRS certification letter of disability
and your OPM certification letter of qualification. In addition,
give the human resource manager your resume and completed state
application. Ask if there is a current opening for which you
qualify. If there is an opening, ask for an interview. If there
is not an opening, ask to be kept in mind for future openings
and how long your resume will be kept in their files. Call back
on a regular basis
Follow up work is the name of the game. It requires some effort
and self discipline to get the necessary certification letters.
It requires more effort to locate state agencies which employ
the job family you are interested in. Continuing to inquire at
agencies until they actually have an opening is necessary, but
the result is a job in an area of your interest if you are a
successful candidate.
Since the inception of HB 1340, there have been about 50 people
with disabilities hired per year. Over 40 state agencies have
employed persons with disabilities through certification under
HB 1340. You could be one of those people.
If you are interested in knowing more about certification under
HB 1340, contact Peppi Boudreaux at the Office of Handicapped
Concerns. She may be reached at 405-521-3756 in the Oklahoma
City metro or 800-522-8224 statewide. If you would like us to do
training for groups in your area, let us know what your needs
are. Your tax dollars support our services.
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Follow up work is the name of the game.
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Self discipline is self care.
(anonymous)
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Angel of Mercy
If you live near one of the larger cities in Oklahoma, you may
have a lot of resources to meet your needs. Social service
agencies are well-represented in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, but
lots of Oklahomans live in more rural areas of the state. What
do these people do when they need a ride to the doctor? What do
they do when they need help in paying an electric bill? Where
can they go if they have no money for toys for the children at
Christmastime?
It has been my experience that somebody in the community learns
about social services and knows where to go to get needs met.
People go to that neighbor down the road to get help. That
special neighbor knows where to go and how to get things done.
Frances Boye (pronounced Bowie) is that neighbor down the road
in the far southeastern town of Talihina, Oklahoma. People down
there consider her an angel of mercy, and you may come to agree
with them.
Frances and her husband, Harold, formed what they call Neighbor
Helping Neighbor in Talihina back in 1995. The “organization” is
just Frances and Harold, but they have helped a lot of people.
They helped get Angel Food Ministries into Talihina and actually
distributed the food before a local church took over this task.
Frances works with a local senior citizens center making Indian
tacos with donated ingredients. They save up their money from
sales, and the seniors took a trip to Branson, Missouri last
year. One year they went to Colorado. It takes a lot of Indian
tacos to send fifty people on a four-day trip.
Frances volunteers as an advocate for people in the local
nursing home and the local veterans center in Talihina. Her
church regularly holds services, and it is also not uncommon for
a resident to call her asking for a personal visit. Frances and
Harold are there to be a friend to a person in a nursing home
who may not have family nearby.
Somebody needs butane to heat their home and can’t afford it.
Frances goes to local merchants and finds someone who will
donate to meet the need. A child in the local school needs
school supplies. Frances again goes to local merchants and asks
for help. She gets the job done, and that’s why people tell
their friends and beat a path to her door.
Frances is not a stranger to social services. After all, she did
study to be an LPN and served in that capacity at St. John’s
Hospital in Tulsa for many years. So you see, it came as a
natural thing when she and Harold moved to Talihina in 1979 to
get involved in helping people. And the Boye’s quickly saw lots
of need in rural, southeast Oklahoma.
Frances tells the story about a 59 year old woman not far from
her who has cancer and osteoporosis. Frances took her a
home-cooked meal and saw a need for attendant care for short
times several days a week. Frances found an agency willing to
send someone to meet this need, and she found that the woman’s
Medicaid case could pay for this. Frances does not hesitate to
use her phone to find necessary resources.
Frances and Harold receive a lot of donated food from local
merchants and private individuals. When someone calls her that
they have a need, she packs them up a bag full of food and
delivers it to meet that need. She is not an official food
pantry for the zip code in which she lives, but she is the food
pantry everyone knows about and uses. She gets a pleasure about
helping others.
Sometimes the person who everybody looks up to for help needs
help themselves. In 1995 a tornado struck the front of the cabin
where Frances and Harold lived on their five acres a couple
miles north of town. The Boye’s didn’t have the money to repair
the damages. They were just thankful to be alive since they were
actually in the cabin when the storm struck.
They needed a grant to either repair their cabin or get some
other form of housing. The superintendent of schools encouraged
the Boye’s to apply for a grant from the Community Action agency
in Stigler. It took awhile, but they got a brand, spanking new
mobile home moved to their acreage. But, they still needed a new
septic tank to hook up to their new home. Frances applied to the
Rural Development of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and got
the money to finish the job. Even the caregiver needs care
sometimes.
Frances and Harold Boye are just neighbors that live down the
road. They are everything that we used to mean when we used that
word “neighbor”. But some people in Talihina consider them even
more. To some people this couple has come to be a real angel of
mercy.
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...somebody in the community learns about social services and
knows where to go to get needs met.
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The Ability to See the Big Picture
If you can’t see what you are doing now as a part of a
long-range goal, you’ll wear out. Imagine how long athletes
would be able to endure the pain of practice if they couldn’t
see the game in their mind’s eye.
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Joseph Harp Correctional Center
Where would you go in Oklahoma if you were convicted of a crime
and you had a disability? You would go to Joseph Harp
Correctional Center—if you had special needs. Joseph Harp
Correctional Center is a part of the Oklahoma Department of
Corrections. It is located about seven miles west of Lexington,
Oklahoma in rural Cleveland County. Many people confuse it with
its larger, sister facility with the name “Lexington” located
about half mile to the west. The two are separate facilities
under the same umbrella of the Oklahoma Department of
Corrections.
Joseph Harp was opened in 1978 with a capacity of 450 prisoners.
Today it houses about 1400 prisoners in a medium-security
setting. In February of this year, it opened the J-Unit housing
258 men, most of whom have some form of physical disability.
Some of these men have mental dementia, and some of them do not
have any disability.
Prisoners without disabilities living in the J-Unit serve as
healthcare orderlies for their peers who need assistance in
activities of daily living. They are paid $37.50 per month, and
this is considered a quite good salary among the various prison
occupations.
I spoke with Diane Givens who serves as a case manager in J-Unit
employed as Department of Corrections (DOC) staff. Diane tells
me that a DOC doctor is available for the men on J-Unit as well
as nurses who dispense medications. Ninety-four of the prisoners
in this unit use a wheelchair for ambulation, and many others
use a walker or a cane. One prisoner in the dementia ward of
J-Unit is almost 90 years old.
Prisoners roam freely outside their cells in common access
within their pod as well as common areas within J-Unit as a
whole. The prisoners with physical disabilities do not have jobs
as most of the other prisoners at Joseph Harp. Prisoners in
J-Unit may go outside during the day any time except when all
prisoners are undergoing a count.
J-Unit is well equipped with roll-in showers with fold-down
seats and hand-held nozzles which permit the men independence in
this activity. Healthcare orderlies serve as another set of
legs, arms, or hands to help prisoners with disabilities in
their activities of daily living. Telephones are available in
certain common areas, but prisoners must call collect. Diane
Givens characterizes her J-Unit as a “Cadillac” facility in the
DOC system.
Debbie Dorris, assistant to the warden, continues my tour of
Joseph Harp. J-Unit is the only unit in the state corrections
system designed to house inmates with physical disabilities.
However, inmates with mental disabilities are dispersed among
all prisons in the corrections system. One hundred twenty
Oklahoma prisoners with mental health disabilities are housed in
the mental health unit (MHU) of Joseph Harp. (This is separate
from J-Unit which we toured earlier.) MHU receives prisoners
with mental health disabilities from all over the system.
These prisoners have behavior problems stemming from their
mental health. When these problems are stabilized, these
prisoners may return to the general population of their original
prison. Phychiatrists and psychologists are available on the MHU
as well as in general population units at Joseph Harp.
G-Unit at Joseph Harp houses 70 prisoners who are intellectually
challenged—that is, they have an IQ of 70 or below. Living near
or occasionally with an inmate with intellectual challenges are
30 resident assistants who are inmates themselves. These RA’s as
they are called assist the prisoners with intellectual
disabilities in writing letters or reading books.
Ralph Crampton serves as Fire and Safety Consultant at Joseph
Harp. He points out ramps built to the common dining area with
wide sidewalks permitting two wheelchairs to pass. Ralph tells
me that the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was
originally supposed to have a section on accessibility
applicable to prisons. He says they are looking at accessibility
issues at Joseph Harp to make this facility accessible to people
with disabilities. It is good to know that a place such as
Joseph Harp exists within our state system. Programs for the
general population and facilities for the population with
disabilities make this a special place within the Oklahoma
Department of Corrections.
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Ninety-four of the prisoners in this unit use a wheelchair for
ambulation, and many others use a walker or a cane.
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Working Smart
Being successful is not about how hard you work—it is about how
smart you work. Michael LeBoef said, “Devoting a little of
yourself to everything means committing a great deal of yourself
to nothing.” There is a big difference between activity and
accomplishment. Activity is being busy. Henry David Thoreau
said, “It’s not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question
is: What are you busy about?”
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS
June 21-24, 2007 Hearing Loss Association of America Convention,
Cox Convention Center, Oklahoma City. Oklahoma is sponsoring the
national convention, call 405-951-8383 for more information.
July 11-13, 2007 14th Annual Children’s Behavioral Health
Conference, Tulsa Southern Hills Marriott. For more information
contact Cynthia Caligone at 405-522-8300.
July 26, 2007 Caregiver essentials series on medication
management. Warren Clinic from 10 a.m.- noon, Tulsa 6600 S.
Yale, floor conference center. Call 918-481-7741 for more
information on this ongoing series.
October 4-5, 2007 Zarrow Mental Health Symposium on learning
differences and mental health. For more information contact the
Mental Health Association of Tulsa 918-585-1213.
If you have an event coming up relating to disability, let us
know at 800-522-8224 and we’ll help you publicize.
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