-: My name's Ethan Pickett,
currently the owner of Peer Abilities Therapeutic Services.
I'm also a Proactive Recreational Therapist
for our facility as well.
These individuals, and it's individuals of all ages.
So, youngest that we service, two,
our oldest is in their 80s.
It's a wide range of disabilities.
So, those developmental disabilities include autism,
down syndrome, cerebral palsy, mild, moderate
or severe intellectual disabilities that are unspecified
or other, could be more psych focused.
It could be more physical disability as well.
And we're looking to provide solutions
to certain individual problems.
So, that could be physical, social, cognitive
or emotional functioning.
You have about 20 clients, if you're full-time,
20 to 25 different individuals,
and these individuals you see weekly.
So, for example, I've seen some of my individuals
for nine years now, so quite a while.
You get to know them, get to know their families,
build a rapport, relationships.
And I think that's very important
with quality of service as well as, again,
with that relationship, you're building trust, right?
So, you're able to, I think achieve more of the goals
that you're working towards for these individuals.
So, it could be very simple as brushing your teeth,
washing your clothes, doing the dishes,
things like that, to, again, social outlets.
So, finding creative ways to get individuals together,
where our company, we've created speed dating.
So, creating social outlets for individuals
in a safe place to be able to get together and collaborate.
And then, emotional and cognitive functioning.
So, what are ways that we can create coping skills?
And those could be things to help alleviate anxiety,
depression, and other types of education that are similar,
and I think we all kind of understand
what that would look like.
Most recent one I think is pretty cool.
We went skydiving last Saturday.
It's an individual that I've been working with
for a few years.
He's in his late 30s, diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
And as he's aged, he struggles with walking,
flexibility, range of motion.
So, throughout the year, skydiving has been a goal of his.
So, what are ways that we can achieve that?
And I've skydived a couple of times, so I stepped in
thinking, okay, we can make this happen for this guy,
and so, we're gonna work on those physical goals.
So, we're gonna build upon his strength,
his endurance to walk, you know,
from A to B, standing for long periods of time,
his flexibility, having certain gradient
of flexibility within his legs.
And we were able to achieve that over the year,
all the way up to the point of being able to go skydive
this past Saturday and it was a big achievement
and awesome.
We're looking forward to that video coming out.