Community Service Paper

Community Service

For my community service, I volunteered at Xenophon Therapeutic RidingCenter located in Orinda. Xenophon Therapeutic Riding Center is dedicated to helping those with special needs, through the use of both Hippotherapy and therapeutic riding. During Hippotherapy, a physical, occupational, or speech therapist does treatment on an individual using the horse as part of the therapy. Therapeutic riding, on the other hand, teaches the rider to control and direct the horse, and although it is not technically considered a therapy, it does provide the benefit of learning balance and is a great form of exercise. Both forms of therapy use the motion of the horse to positively influence physical, physiological, and behavioral functioning. I did my hours over the summer, from one in the afternoon, to five in the evening, starting in late June, till the end of August, every week on Wednesday. My role was a side-walker, which is the person on either side of a rider who may need help with their balance, or in the event that the horse spooks (meaning gets startled, and usually either takes off, or spins) at something, can get the rider safely off. Although a formal scientific study of the effects of therapeutic riding has yet to be preformed, and it’s benefits are considered far from being a treatment for many disorders including autism, I personally believe that the interaction with both the horse, and the instructor is very valuable for children who have trouble connecting with their environment, and have a tendency to shut themselves in from the world. A testimony to that statement comes from Temple Grandin, who is autistic, and a professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. She claims that, like animals, she thinks in pictures, not language, which causes her to have anxiety problems and have trouble function in society without the help of medication. The way her brain processes the world allows her to connect with animals far better than people. This ability, which is a characteristic of the autistic brain, allows her to connect with animals on a whole new level and she is now best known for her work designing slaughterhouses to be a less stressful experience for the animal. Her life is proof that people with disabilities are an important part of society, and can live happy, healthy, productive lives with the help of people, and animals who are willing to put in the work to help them prosper.

In our community and in the world, there are many people who have either mental, or physical disabilities, or both. Despite their setbacks, these people can still prove very valuable to society, and live happy, healthy lives, but may require a little more help than others do. In the past, people with disabilities have been viewed as inferior, and have most unfortunately been often treated with cruelty and contempt. Fortunately today, our society is becoming more accepting of differences, helped along by programs like Special Olympics and Best Buddies, and there is even a movement afoot to end the use of the derogatory term for people with mental disabilities, the term ‘retard’. This word has been controversial in politics of late, after President Obama made a reference to his bowling skills in correlation to the Special Olympics, and The White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel used the word “retarded” at a private meeting last year. Both men publically apologized, and brought the controversy over the word into the eye of the public. The campaign became nation wide at the global youth summit of the Special Olympics and soon after, over 250 schools were involved, as well as some organizations based on faith and the movement continues to gain support, with over 78,000 pledges to not use the “r-word” nation wide. This campaign is an effort to bring awareness to the fact that people with disabilities should not be discriminated against, and since the term ‘retard’ has taken on such a negative connotation, it should not be used any more to describe a group of people. The word ‘retard’ technically means to be delayed, and only recently has it begun to be used in general conversation for anything that is presumed to be negative. Through my work at Xenophon, I met many individuals with disabilities who I would never even think to refer to as retarded, because of the extreme negative connotation to the word and the fact that they were in no way slowed down by their disabilities.

Although the government has not participated in promoting the end of the use of the ‘r-work’, the Obama administration has created a plan to empower Americans with disabilities. This plan would attempt to provide Americans with disabilities educational opportunities necessary to their success, and end discrimination as well as promote equal opportunity, and other improvements to their quality of life. Whether the Obama administration will come through on all these promises remains to be seen. They have, however, already begun to help families with children with disabilities by making it illegal for health care providers to deny children coverage under their parent’s plans because of pre-existing conditions. This law, which is part of the health care reform, is extremely beneficial for children with disabilities because higher rate of health problems they experience as compared with the rest of the population. It is unfortunate that health care companies were unable to take this initiative on their own, and needed government encouragement to do so. They may have only done it because they will be getting many new customers, because of health care being mandatory, that there will not be as great an impact on their profits if they cover people more prone to health problems. I believe that it should have been made a law a lot sooner, since it is a form of discrimination, and we are a country based on equality. But unfortunately in the constitution, there is nothing about health care, since it was a nonexistent issue to our founding fathers, and this is why it has taken so long for any president to initiate a change in policy. It will hopefully take some of the financial strain off parents and will hopefully lead to more parents being able to keep their special needs children, rather than put them up for adoption. The need for parents to take care of their special needs children is greater than ever at the present time because with the disastrous financial effects of the recession, many states have been forced to cut their funding to important and necessary programs, like foster care. Indiana, for instance, is now paying foster parents only twenty five dollars a day, instead of the usual hundred, if they are fostering a special needs child. This greatly limits the services the families are able to provide for the children who need the most help. For a child with special needs to be given the greatest chance of success in the world, the majority require many forms of therapy, and typically a fair amount more medical attention than a regular child. It is also a huge time commitment to take in a child with special needs, and one which now only the wealthy that are willing to pay out of pocket, are able to provide. Families like these are few and far between, and the number of children needing their help is ever increasing. Hopefully this issue will be one Obama will address in during his presidential term, and will hopefully provide some concrete responses to his promises. It may also play a role in the 2012 presidential election. For Sarah Palin, who may run for president in the election, this issue hits close to home. Her youngest son, Trig, has Down syndrome and she has in the past said that children with special needs would “Have a friend in the white house”. Regardless of party affiliation, this is a very tempting promise to parents of children with special needs and is a powerful tool for Palin to use to get votes if she chooses to run in the upcoming election.

For long term effects, I believe that more services should be made more readily available to those of our population who need it most. And as the Democratic Party has been in the past more socially progressive than the Republican Party, I am optimistic that many necessary changes will be made, in spite of the current economic situation. But now, I fear that with cuts to extremely vital programs such as foster care, we will have an entire generation of children who have suffered from lack of a stable home life, which leaves them ignorant to many social situations that can only be learned from a functional family. These individuals will undoubtedly have emotional damages to show for their missing proper care. Children with special needs especially need a stable home life in order to be able to thrive, which is rarely found when being bounced around in foster care. This may produce many individuals incapable of functioning in normal society, and consequently need to be institutionalized. This I believe will cost the government much more than if they had just been able to pay more families for their foster care, so that they may find a permanent homes. Those willing to adopt a child with special needs are in my opinion, saintly in the extreme. There is said to be nothing more difficult than raising a child who needs constant attention, and can be un-gratifying if there is any expectation that they will be able to function normally in the world. From talking to parents at Xenophon, I have learned that appreciating the little things can really make all the difference, and taking things one day at a time, can teach patience and understanding. Parents there are not concerned on whether or not their child will make the soccer team, or get into a certain college, they have learned to appreciate the fact that their child learned a new word, or was able focus on the instructor for a longer time than usual. If all parents were as patient as these, there is no telling what the world would be like, but I can only imagine the cost it must have taken to get to this mindset. The realization that your child will probably never go to law school, or get a PhD must be devastating in this area especially, seeing as nearly everyone is hyper-driven to succeed. Programs like Xenophon give the children a much better chance to go out into the world. But sadly even though Xenophon is a non-profit organization, few families have access to such a luxury, either because of time constraints or location. If the government were able to endorse more programs like Xenophon, even if they are not Hippotherapy, or Therapeutic riding programs, the country may see an increase in the number of individuals able to contribute to society in a meaningful way, which would be beneficial to all parties involved, and lead to the improvement of our society for years to come.

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