Pandemic hasn’t stopped Fuller from helping most vulnerable

By JACOB MARROCCO

Cassie Fuller has remained unflinching in the face of a sweeping pandemic, and Perspectives Corporation director of employment services Tara Brosnan has taken notice.

Fuller was hired on to the staff at Cherry Hill Manor in Johnston in March, starting her orientation around the same time that nursing homes across the state were locked down to visitors because of the coronavirus.

Despite the anxiety and uncertainty, Fuller reports to work every day – getting her temperature checked and doing laundry and wipedowns of high-volume services to keep the Manor’s residents safe.

Nursing homes around Rhode Island have been impacted significantly by the crisis. Executive Director Katie Gerber said during a phone call Wednesday morning that there are two coronavirus cases at Cherry Hill Manor.

“Yeah, she’s doing really well,” Brosnan said of Fuller during a phone interview on Monday. “She’s almost totally independent. She’s really excited to be working, every time we pick her up she’s got a smile on her face and she’s ready to go.”

Fuller and Brosnan recently took part in another installment of Take Your Legislator to Work Day – this time structured as a webinar – that focused on putting the spotlight on workers with developmental disabilities serving on the front lines of the crisis.

While Brosnan said North Kingstown-based Perspectives has numerous departments and areas of reach, the goal of employment services is to help those with developmental disabilities knock down barriers to joining the workforce.

“We help them to explore employment, anywhere from doing work trials and assessments with job exploration-type things, all the way to helping them obtain a job and help them be successful in the job, whether it requires some more heavy, 1-on-1 supports or whether it’s just reinforcing the skills they need to be successful and just kind of checking in every once in a while,” Brosnan said.

Fuller has been doing very well, too. Kevin Carrier, her supervisor at Cherry Hill Manor, even hopped on the Zoom call last week to praise her work. Brosnan echoed as much during her interview Monday, adding that Fuller stays up-to-date on the situation inside and outside of the Manor.

“We have very frank discussions – this is what’s going on in the world, this is what that means – and she made the informed decision to continue working and then they started the temperature checks and the masks, and she goes with the flow,” Brosnan said. “You can tell maybe she’s a little bit nervous, but she’s never been [saying], ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.’ She pays attention, she asks questions, we talk about what’s going on … she knows the nursing home is doing everything they can to keep people safe.”

Brosnan said Fuller had previously been in a Cranston-based program called Project SEARCH, a transitional program for students 18 and older that is “more focused on vocational independence.”

Project SEARCH helped Fuller secure a housekeeping internship at Miriam Hospital, which she then parlayed into her new position at Cherry Hill Manor.

“You have to be 18 or older, but you’re still in high school so you’re kind of more in that transitional period,” Brosnan said. “You have support from Perspectives and you have support from BHDDH [Department of Behavioral Health, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals] to start thinking about adulthood, because once you turn 22, that’s it. You're not considered a student anymore, and now you're an adult in the DD world, so they really help you transition smoothly to that process because it can be confusing for parents. They don’t know what questions to ask.”

While it’s comforting for Brosnan to see those she works with earning an income, she’s happy that these new workers know “they’re good at something and it’s so good to see that.”

“That’s why I love these kinds of things, like Take Your Legislator to Work Day, because it’s gratifying on both ends,” Brosnan said. ‘It’s so gratifying to work with the individuals and see them develop a career that they have coworkers they talk to now, and they have schedules and they have their little things at work that they like to do and people that they like to see, and it’s so meaningful in so many ways. It’s not just money.”

She noted that these burgeoning careers would not be possible without workplaces welcoming their newest employees with open arms.

“It’s so awesome to work with places like Cherry Hill and Cox Communications and all these people that are just willing to open their doors and say, ‘Yeah, yeah, have them come in and try this.’ [They’re] so open to what we do, because not everybody’s as open to it as they are.”