Perfect partnership

WASILLA — When Katie Griffiths was born to mentally disabled parents in California 20 years ago, it wasn’t certain if she’d inherited the same mental challenges when she was adopted by a Valley family shortly thereafter.

To Bob and Kathy Griffiths, however, the mystery didn’t matter. As adoptive parents who already had two biological children and wanted to expand their family, she was a pure joy and still is, despite her cognitive disabilities.

“She just sort of popped into our world,” the mother of seven said Monday. “She’s the one who started us on our journey to adopt kids with disabilities. It’s been a wonderful experience raising her. She has a great personality and we haven’t had many problems resulting from her challenges.”

Now a grown woman, Katie is one of five mentally challenged Valley residents who are taking part in Alaska’s first Project SEARCH program at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, in conjunction with the Mat-Su Borough School District.

And her mother couldn’t be happier for her daughter to learn skills that will make her much more employable, giving her a chance to earn her own living and someday even retire with her own pension.

“We’re very grateful for the opportunity and we’re very proud of her for doing so well in it,” Griffiths said. “As parents, we certainly want the best for our kids and we also want them to be as independent as possible. We have high hopes they will be very successful in this program, and hopefully a year from now she’ll have a certificate that will allow her to work in the hospital.”

Founded in 1995 by the American College of Healthcare Executives with the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio and now spread to more than 140 sites in 42 states, Project SEARCH is a one-year high school transition program that provides skills training and work experience for young adults with disabilities ages 18-22. The program provides full immersion in the employer agency, which in this case is Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.

For the past month, the hospital has provided work internships in its catheter lab, materials management, nutritional services, sterile processing and environmental services.

From the looks and sounds of it, the local program is already a hit with everyone involved.

“What I’m seeing from you guys is really impressive,” Mat-Su teacher and transition specialist Mary Putnam told the interns during Friday’s class within the medical center before they headed off for three hours of work in their designated departments. “We don’t have to assist you very often because you have great trainers in your departments who have really taken you under their wings and you have really stepped up to the plate.”

Mat-Su Services Job Coach Ron Halstead agreed.

Having been in the Navy for 20 years before getting his feet wet with an adult services agency in California, Halstead knows what a good worker looks like.

“I love how you are all holding yourselves accountable,” Halstead told them. “For instance, Kenny (Conaway) called in to say he was going to be late because the buses were running a little behind and Michelle (Ruegger) called in to say she was going to be late because she couldn’t find her badge, then she problem-solved and found it.”

He praised Ariel Curtis for realizing she was making mistakes because she was going too fast and slowed down. He told Alora Hart she was on “cruise control” in nutritional services, doing wonderful making sandwiches and salads for patient trays.

As for Griffiths, Halstead was pleased with the way she was working with her supervisor, Jeannie Burtch, in environmental services.

“When you make little mistakes, you admit it and then you take a minute and figure it out and continue on,” he said. “That’s a really important skill.”

Putnam told the group she recently received an e-mail from the medical center’s marketing director, Kerry Aguirre, that she is hearing rave reviews about them.

The interns will spend four months in each of five departments before completing the program and becoming eligible for paid employment either at the medical center or elsewhere.

Alora Hart, 21, said she hopes to land a position that involves typing.

“I’m an expert typist and a good speller,” said Hart, the daughter of a civil engineer and homemaker. “I’m my parents’ hero.”

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.