Carrie Goheen, Direct Support Professional (DSP), is on her individual’s schedule, whether that’s at the Day Program or out and about.
For Carrie Goheen and the one-on-one individual that she supports, no two days are alike. They may go to the nail salon, the movies, the mall, or a restaurant.
Throughout her four years of working with her individual as a Direct Support Professional(DSP), Carrie has learned how to understand her unique language of signing and pointing.
While the person Carrie supports is non-verbal, her joyful exclamations often light up the room at the Typical Life Corporation Day Program in York.
“I love seeing her smile every day,” Carrie says. “She’s like family.”
Carrie came to TLC in 2018 after previously working in home health care. Her passion for helping people had budded long before that, though, while she was still in high school.
“Since I was younger, I always wanted to be a nurse,” she says.
When she took a high school class about people with disabilities, Carrie knew that she had found the field she wanted to go into.
She started working at the Day Program facility, but when COVID-19 forced the program to close in 2020, Carrie shifted to the Residential Home. When the Day Program was able to open back up again, Carrie returned and took up right where she left off as her individual’s one-on-one direct support.
On one memorable day, while Carrie was working at the residential program, all the ladies living at the house decided they wanted to go to the beach.
“We had the time of our life,” she says.
They went to Ocean City, Md., and soaked in the sun on the beach, ate at a buffet, and shopped along the boardwalk. “They smiled the whole time,” Carrie says.
Getting to be a part of experiences like that and the ensuing delight in the individuals keeps Carrie coming back to work.
“I love waking up every day and seeing how they are,” she says. “You really have to have a passion for this. You’re helping change someone’s life.”
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