00:00
Building A Relationship of Trust And Progress. The following video features individuals seated in an office conference room speaking to the camera about their experiences with the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind or MCB. They are each talking about the subject of “Building A Relationship of Trust And Progress” between MCB Vocational Rehabilitation (or VR) counselors and their clients. Speakers include, in order:
Kara Sittig (MCB VR Counselor)
Desiree Eusebio (MCB Client)
Brittany Taylor (MCB VR Counselor)
Mayanne MacDonald-Briggs (MCB VR Counselor)
Sara Regan (Parent of two MCB Clients)
Tim Leahy, (Parent of an MCB Client)
Katie Shannon (MCB Client)
James Leahy (MCB Client)
00:56
Kara Sittig: You're meeting someone probably at the most vulnerable time that they'll ever be. You really just want to earn their trust, and them to know that, one, you're coming into their home and you’re a state worker, you know, it's not that scary. I'm just a person that's here to have a conversation with you about services. But that you're a human to, and that you're able to just, we can…I can talk to you like I would want someone to talk to my mom, or my family member who's going through the same thing.
01:20
Desiree Eusebio: Kara was so understanding, and really helped me through a lot. Professionally, she did amazing. And above and beyond, she was also like a friend to me, and was definitely always someone I could speak to for anything. And it just felt really comfortable. And just I was grateful to have somebody who understood blindness, understood what resources and everything that I needed to even survive and live this life efficiently.
01:50
Brittany Taylor: When I first meet a client, I'm not trying to shove information down their throat. Of course, they're looking for resources, and I'm happy to provide it. But I'm happy to also have a conversation about them. Who are you? What are your goals? What do you want from MCB? What can I provide to you? I think meeting them where they're at, and kind of making yourself to be human and not just a robot, is very important to the relationship.
02:15
Mayanne MacDonald-Briggs: I talk about my role with families to start as an advocate. So really about being an advocate for the family, for the…for the student, but teaching them to become the advocates for themselves.
02:27
Sara Regan: I feel like Mayanne heard me, but more so I think she heard the kids. She was always very respectful of wanting us to have all of the services that they needed, but not pushing us in any one particular direction.
02:43
Tim Leahy: They really care about helping the people that they work with. They clearly have an understanding of the challenges that the blind and visually impaired people face in the world, and they want to help those people. And it's important to them, it's part of who they are.
03:00
Kara Sittig: To talk about what the relationship between the counselor and the client will be like is really, I describe it as a two-way street. I will put in as much as you're going to put in to pursue your goal.
03:09
Brittany Taylor: Sometimes I walk into clients’ homes, and you know, their husband is excited to see me and hugs me and asks me how my family is doing, and you know, and I know what's going on in their family. It's nice, because I think that that development of the relationship, you get so much more out of it because they're willing to divulge information to you, you're able to dive deeper into what their needs are. It's not at surface level.
03:34
Katie Shannon: The counselors, they're just a great group of people. They're very highly qualified. They're very, very friendly. And I really think they care about what they do; they're very dedicated. So I've never met a counselor that I didn't like, and I've been there for quite a long time, so I've met quite a few.
03:53
James Leahy: I can speak for the members of the Commission for their patience. Frustration, anger is common among newly blind individuals. So they're very good at stepping back, and stepping back up again.
04:07
Brittany Taylor: We care about our consumers. We want our clients to be successful, and we'll go to the end…the end of Massachusetts to make sure that happens. You know, we're going to refer them and we're going to provide whatever we can.
04:23
To learn more about and contact the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, find them online at mass.gov. Or call 800-392-6450.