Center for Sight & Hearing: Therapist Emily Shuman and Client Shameika Lemon
Phil talks to Emily Shuman the vision rehab therapist and client Shameika Lemon about what they are truly thankful for this year…..
Transcript
Phil Luciano: You know, during the holiday season, this program, the Phil Luciano Show, we’re continuing a tradition. We chat with some special guests who want to share why they’re especially thankful this year. It’s a series we call Attitudes of Gratitude, and it involves how local social service agencies have uplifted local lives.
And joining us today, we have Emily Schumann. She’s a vision rehab therapist and Shameka Lemon. She’s a client, and they’re both with the Center for Sight and Hearing.
Phil Luciano: Ladies, welcome to the show.
Emily Shuman: Thank you.
Shameika Lemon: Thank you.
Phil Luciano: Emily, if we can start with you.
If you can explain for folks who aren’t that familiar or familiar at all with the Center for Sight and Hearing, where you are, what you guys do.
Emily Shuman: Of course. Thank you for having us.
The Center for Sight and Hearing has a satellite office in Morton. We provide services to individuals who are blind or visually impaired. So that all entails being 18 or older.
And those services are related to the fact that conventional means of correction no longer work. So glasses, contacts, surgeries don’t meet the need anymore. We step in and we provide services so that you can continue to live your life, enjoy doing everyday tasks, cooking and cleaning, and to do it safely.
So we come in home. It’s all free to the individuals. We provide equipment.
We provide orientation mobility instruction, which means utilizing a long white cane to navigate. And so we’re just open and available in the area to provide those services.
Phil Lucian: I would guess, Emily, and I’m purely taking a guess, that a lot of the clients you help, they are folks who, either because of an accident or a gradual degradation over time of their vision, they’re like you said, no longer these other methods help them see.
So they have to adapt to a different type of challenge. And that’s what you come in to do, right?
Emily Shuman: Yes, sir.
Phil Luciano: And that must be quite the challenge.
I mean, people who maybe much of their lives had at least some vision or maybe all vision and then it’s like, oh, we gotta do something new. Is that something you find rewarding in your job there?
Emily Shuman: Yes, the goal is to just empower people to get back into their goals and their lifestyles. So back to employment if that’s what they’re seeking, back to playing cards if that’s what they would prefer to do.
We ultimately want to empower people to continue to live their lives with joy and gratitude.
Phil Luciano: Very good.
So Shamika, you are a Peoria native?
Shameika Lemon: Correct.
Phil Luciano: Which school are you from?
Shameika Lemon: Woodruff.
Phil Luciano: A warrior? All right. So what is your situation as to why you sought the assistance of the Center for Sight and Hearing?
Shameika Lemon: I am legally blind.
My vision is 20 over 2,500 and my left eye, my right eye is completely blind. I always was eager to be around more people like me so they could help me on my journey as well as I could help them. I’m the type of person I always keep God first and I like to lift everybody’s spirits.
So by me going to the Blind Center, people was telling me how it’s easier for them to do certain things than what they used to do when they had their sight. So I’m all on board. I’m just eager to learn more and when you don’t be around people that’s like you, you get lonely, you feel alone even though if you have family, but I learned how to put God first.
He’s always with you and you’re never alone.
Phil Luciano: So Shamika, with your situation, was it a matter that for for a period, and I don’t know what that might be, a period, whatever you can tell us here, that you could you could do things on your own, but then it became a matter of I need to go to the Center to get help with that or was it a matter of just meeting other folks with the same challenge that you had?
Shameika Lemon: Well, I only been legally blind for six months and so I thought I was able to do things by myself, but it was getting worse and worse and worse and it’s like when you get something tooken away, you try your best to, okay, well I could do it, I could do it, I could do it, I could do it, but it never was, it never became easier until I went and seeked help.
Phil Luciano: And where did you hear about the Center from? Was it from someone else or?
Shameika Lemon: I used to watch a lot of Facebook and TikTok, so they, I saw TikTok videos of low vision, legally blind.
Phil Luciano: And Emily, when clients or would-be clients come in, is it generally a matter of that they are eager for help or is it sometimes they’re a little reluctant because of the nature of most of us, that we want to be independent or what is that like? Is it all different types of situations?
Emily Shuman: Yes, it all varies on the individual. Ultimately, we, as an organization, the Center for Sight and Hearing, want to pull alongside people. So if they’re at the very beginning of their journey to where they just need somebody to talk to and to come and give them a bold pen so that they can write down notes for themselves, we are more than happy to start with them at that part of their journey or in Shamika’s case, the fire and desire to learn and to get back to a place of feeling more independent.
We are ready to join at that stage of the journey as well.
Phil Luciano: We’re talking with Emily Schumann. She’s with the Center for Sight and Hearing and Shamika Lemon.
She’s a client of the Center. And Shamika, from the time you’ve been going to the Center, about, I think you’ve said about two and a half months, what has been the biggest thing, your biggest takeaway or biggest learning experience that you’re like, wow, this is something they really showed me?
Shameika Lemon: How to communicate better with others because I always was the one that helped people. I didn’t need anybody to help me.
So going to the Center, they would just let me know it’s okay to ask for help. It’s okay to take your time in doing things because you have a vision problem. So when they was telling me, was teaching me to don’t rush myself, to just stay safe and take things one day at a time and you’ll get better.
So they showed me a lot of that. And I used to tell them that I used to see black circles or whatever, you know, and I’ll be scared to walk over a certain path. So when I got taught to use my white cane, it helped me out a lot and I feel safe with the white cane.
So I only learned that through this program that I’m in now and the Blind Center.
Phil Luciano: As far as fellowship, as far as meeting other people as you mentioned who are like you, what has that been like?
Shameika Lemon: Oh my god, it’s awesome. It’s amazing to see people that’s been where you’re at right now.
It’s good to see people that’s doing much better than you and they’ll tell you how they got to that stage, you know, so if you could listen, you will learn.
Phil Luciano: That’s a tough one for a lot of us, right? If you just listen, I get what you’re saying. And Emily, I’m wondering, is that one of those breakthroughs you get to see a lot of that people, even if they want to learn and they show up at the center, I mean, it’s a new thing.
They might be a little bit apprehensive, but once they learn not only to trust you and the other therapists there, but they learn, hey, there’s some people here who are like me and they’ve got a lot of things to say too. Do you see that kind of breakthrough a lot?
Emily Shuman: We do a lot. It allows people to have community.
We all need some kind of community. We all need people that we can speak to and sometimes, especially when it comes to significant drastic vision loss, speaking to a significant other doesn’t communicate the same way as, like Shamika said, speaking to somebody else who has gone through similar significant vision loss. So it creates just a community and a camaraderie that is beautiful to see because people come alive again.
Phil Luciano: Very good. We have to wrap this up in a couple seconds here. But Shamika, if you could share, and I know you’ve been going to the center just for a few months.
It sounds like it’s doing great things and you’re doing great things. But this holiday season, is this an especially grateful season for you regarding going to the center?
Shameika Lemon: Yes, it is a grateful season for me. When I go to the center, it’s like family.
So you come through the door and they just lift your spirits up. It’s so just welcoming and I feel like if someone is going through or need help the way I do, go to the center. They’re going to do everything that they can to make you feel better, lift your spirits up, and treat you like a family.
We’re family, not strangers.
Phil Luciano: Well to that, very good. Thank you for that.
And to that, Emily, where do people go if they want to find out information about the Center for Sight and Hearing? So the Center for Sight and Hearing, we have a website, cshil.org, so that would be the first location to go to and an application can be filled out. That is located up in Rockford, but then they send down that information to myself, Emily Schumann, or to Monica in the area so that we can provide services.
Phil Luciano: Very good.
And is there a phone number or just go to the website?
Emily Shuman: It would be best to go to the website first so that they can make sure that we get contact information.
Phil Luciano: Very good. Emily Schumann, Shameka Lemon from the Center for Sight and Hearing.
Thanks for joining us today.
Shameika Lemon: Thank you.
Emily Shuman: Thank you.
Phil Luciano: All righty.