Stu Bykofsky: Therapy program is a win-win-win

THE TWO GROUPS could hardly have been more different.

One group included graduate students from the Jefferson University Hospital School of Health Professions, working on their master's degrees in occupational therapy - educated, optimistic, confident of the future.

The other group included employees of Baker Industries, a nonprofit that helps its participants transition from down-and-out to up-and-coming. Many Bakerites lack life skills and confidence.

The 10 Jeff students have excellence stamped on their resumes. The Baker people have had problems with addiction and/or physical and mental challenges, or jailtime served.

The Jeff students learned from the Baker people even as the Baker people acquired useful skills from the students.

The students and Baker people came together weekly for three months late last year in an interactive, educational program that is being repeated now.

The idea for the collaboration was sparked about a year ago when Jefferson University assistant professor Tina DeAngelis, who later became coordinator of the program, learned that Baker president John Thacher was being honored by her church. After researching Baker, she saw an opportunity for a win-win program.

Beth Tiewater, Baker director of projects and resources, said many Bakerites "have problems with goal-setting, self-esteem and confidence issues because they have been knocked back so hard from their experiences in prison or rehab."

One of them, Baker participant Sergio Lebron, told me that a lot of people, hearing the word "therapy," get the idea "that it's something mental, but it's not."

He defines the occupational therapy as "something that helps occupy your life with things that are missing" and that make it difficult for you to succeed.

An example: Lebron served time in jail, "a little here, a little there," from when he was 13 until 21. Then he got hit with some real time, seven years connected with a car theft. As a result, Lebron never had a bank account, never learned how to write a check or balance a checkbook. In the program, he learned how, adding that the scope of Jefferson's teaching encompassed everything from applying for a job to eating right to hygiene.

The Baker people get skilled guidance from the graduate students, but what do the Jeff students get out of it?

"In our profession, we do a lot of great things, but we don't collect data on what we do," says DeAngelis. The program gives Jeff an opportunity "to measure the group and collect the outcomes."

It also gives the students real-life, hands-on experience, sometimes in life-changing ways. "Some students say, 'Oh, my God, I'm going to work with people who were in jail,' " DeAngelis said.

One of the students, Jackie Michel, told me, "I got a greater understanding of how group development works in occupational therapy" and was "quite surprised by how receptive the Bakerites were to our program." In this real-life setting, she was "excited to see real results."

So, the students got real-life experience, the university got to document the effectiveness of therapy, and the Baker people acquired important life skills during the six-week course.

That's a win-win-win.

Phone: 215-854-5977

On Twitter: @StuBykofsky

Columns: philly.com/Byko