Vocational programs help integrate clients into the community

Community Health and Counseling Services operates two vocational programs for adults with mental illness or mental retardation. These two programs, the Big Red redemption center and Handipersons, fall under Community Rehabilitation Services, which is managed by James Lilly.

Big Red, named for its rabbit mascot’s russet fur, opened in December 1982. The center’s 12 part-time employees work from six to 20 hours weekly, sorting returnable bottles and cans.

According to Lilly, Maine has licensed Big Red as a redemption center; the United States Department of Labor has licensed the facility to employ disabled people. The center obtains returnables from two sources: local residents who drop off their cans and bottles; and 25 businesses and non-profit organizations that participate in Big Red’s pickup service. Employees sort the returnables by size, brand, and container; distributors later pick up the sorted returnables.

Big Red pays 5 cents for each bottle or can brought there. The distributors pay the center 8 cents a unit; the profit margin of 3 cents covers wages and supplies for the center, which sustains its own operations.

On July 1, 1992, Big Red will relocate to a warehouse on Barker Street in Bangor. This facility, which will be handicap-accessible, will employ the same number of people and will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

Handipersons employs CHCS clients to perform lawn care, minor maintenance, and other chores. A work crew visits various sites in the Greater Bangor area, including Wing Park on State Street, to provide different services as requested by customers. Two people employed by Handipersons are secretary-receptionists at the CHCS offices.

“Our vocational offerings are an excellent way to integrate the client to the community,” Lilly said. Employees experience “an esteem and a work pride. Many clients have moved on to other jobs in the community. The job and the employment here were the foundation that gave them that confidence to do so.

“Society has been more accepting of people with mental disabilities. In fact, we had a survey done as to why people use Big Red, and it showed that many people did just because it employed the disabled,” he said. “We’re a business first, and a program second.”

Myrtle Brann, a Glenburn resident, first participated in CHCS services in 1975. She later worked in the Big Red gift shop, then sorted returnables until deteriorating eyesight forced her to quit work in October 1988.

Brann, who suffers from diabetes, has lived alone in her mobile home for 14 years with her cat, Sissy. Three CHCS-provided home-health services make it possible for Brann to stay in her own home:

A homemaker does household chores and grocery-shopping;

A nurse visits Brann each day to give her an insulin injection and to check her blood sugar and blood pressure;

A home-health aide comes in each afternoon and prepares Brann’s supper;

An after-care worker coordinates the various services that Brann receives from CHCS or other agencies (the Maine Department of Human Services, Eastern Transportation, etc.). In the past, the after-care worker has helped Brann to apply for food stamps, fuel-assistance, and even housing.

Cindy Baker, a CHCS mental-health clinician, has worked with Brann for the last 1 1/2 years. She pointed out that through Community Rehabilitation Services, Brann is learning personal-skills development.

These skills stress personal and social-adjustment. Brann talked about the information she’d learned about nutrition, AIDS, and coping skills.

“Living in her own home with these supports provides Myrtle with a degree of independence that she would probably not have otherwise,” Baker stated. Even little things make the difference, she stressed. For example, employees from the DHS Division of the Visually Impaired modified the stove in Brann’s mobile home so she can cook.

The surface burners weren’t a problem for Brann, but the oven was. DHS personnel installed “a big B for `bake’ and a mark that points straight up for 350 degrees,” Brann said. Since she can see the letter and the mark, she can use the oven again.