circle of people

When I worked at a camp that had an inclusion program, we had a lot of ways to train the staff in working with children with disabilities.  All staff needed to know general things about working with all children.  The specific counselors working with the children with disabilities needed to know more, but everyone needed to know about inclusion and how to include everyone.

To teach this, we used the people chart.  There were three circles.  On the inside circle, there was a person's family.  The middle circle was comprised of friends.  The outside circle was professional people.  They were people that were involved with a child's life, but paid to do so.

The family circle looked the same for both typically developing children and those with disabilities.  It was the other two that showed a drastic difference.  Children with disabilities had few friends, but lots of professional folks.  The opposite was true for the typical kids.

My circle:

The professional circle has gotten much larger since getting MS.  I guess that is to be expected.  The family circle is the same as its always been, except since my mom's passing.  The friend circle is relatively the same. I'm not one of who has millions of friends, but I have close ones that matter to me.

The professional circle starts to bother me.  Before MS, I rarely saw a doctor.  I wouldn't even include them in my circle I saw them so infrequently.  Now, I see my neurologist every 4 months, a therapist weekly and the others as I need to.