Café at the Inn

Twenty seven students live upstairs and downstairs in dorm style arrangements at the Café at the Inn. There are two people to a room, and they share a bath. Males and females are on different floors. Here, in addition to the couple who are house parents, there is a staff member who stays awake all night. A few of the young men might have seizures or night walks, and so they need to be monitored.

The café is serviced by selected students who can interact with the public and carry out restaurant tasks. Teachers from the work program train them, and they are cued with a color coding system. Color markers are used to designate each table, and number markers designate each seat and each food order. Tables are set with cloths, and luncheon is served to the public, by reservation, three days a week. They may have as many as forty guests at each of two seatings, and are usually full to capacity. The food is prepared by a professional chef, who rotates the menu every three months. There are specials of the day and a delicious dessert tray.

Staff Residences on Site

Brookwood believes that it’s very important that a lot of staff live on the premises, so there are attractive individual homes for several staff families. The residential coordinator and his wife, a psychologist and the psychiatric liaison, live there with their two children. The Director and his wife, one of the nurses, have a home where they have raised four children.

HOME VISITS

One life care plan goal at Brookwood is to help the residents live away from their families for the rest of their lives. To discourage dependency on families, home visits are infrequent, although residents can go home on special occasions. Rather, families are invited to Brookwood to share special events and holidays.
Thanksgiving weekend is a Brookwood celebration. Residents invite their family to their individual home at Brookwood for a series of weekend events.

On Friday, there is a big celebration, called " turkey bowl." where there is a bowling competition with several church groups in a rented bowling alley, with lots of fun for all involved. More events take place on Saturday and Sunday as this new tradition builds.

At Christmas time, most residents go home, although there are about a dozen folk who have no families to go home to, who get to celebrate at Brookwood. To entice the others back, there is a major New Years’ celebration with black ties and gowns, horse drawn carriages, food and fanfare. Everyone looks forward to the celebration, and the anticipation helps them more easily separate from home.

Next Section