Narrator Greg is a 38-year old man who has been diagnosed as having Schizophrenia for 22 years. He lives alone in his apartment, but his parents help him with many of his daily activities.
[Greg, a normally dressed male in a short-sleeved button-down shirt, slacks, socks, and sandals walks down the sidewalk to his apartment building mail center and checks his mail.]
Narrator He was referred to the Cognitive Adaptation Training program because recently, he has had increased trouble managing. This is because his elderly parents have both been ill.
[Greg is now walking outside with an older man.]
Narrator Greg has missed many doses of medication and has been late for work. His apartment has become cluttered and messy, and he has missed payments on several bills. Greg’s CAT therapist, Cindy, is coming to his house today to do the Environmental and Functional assessment necessary to plan CAT treatment.
[Greg’s CAT therapist, Cindy, walks down the sidewalk and up to Greg’s apartment door carrying a plastic tote and folder. Cindy knocks on the door and is let in.]
Cindy Hi, Greg. How are you doing?
Greg Fine, how are you doing, Cindy?
Cindy Good!
[Cindy and Greg shake hands and then take a seat on Greg’s couch. The table in front of the couch is completely covered with miscellaneous items.]
Greg Glad you could make it.
Cindy Thanks for having me over. I just want to let you know what we’re going to be doing today, okay?
Greg Okay.
Cindy We’re going to be going to go ahead and we’re going to do an overview of your apartment, okay?
Greg Okay.
Cindy We’re going to go ahead and look at certain areas.
Greg Yes, ma’am.
Cindy We’re going to go through some drawers, okay?
Greg Okay.
Cindy And if you don’t feel comfortable with me going through and looking at some things, just go ahead and let me know.
Greg Okay.
Cindy We usually want to go through and look at things and see if you’re missing anything or if there’s anything we can help you with and get you those things that you might need to keep doing things you do during the day, okay?
Greg Okay.
[Cindy picks up her clipboard and pen. She fills out the form while going through the questions with Greg.]
Cindy So, I’m going to ask you just a couple of questions, routine. What’s your full name?
Greg Gregory…
[The rest of Greg’s name is muted to protect client confidentiality.]
Cindy And can you give me your date of birth, Greg?
[Greg gives his date of birth but this is muted to protect client confidentiality.]
Greg It rhymes.
[Greg smiles and Cindy chuckles.]
Cindy It does. And how about your current address?
Greg Current address…
[Greg gives his address but this is muted to protect client confidentiality.]
Cindy Okay, how about your phone number?
Greg Phone number, 422-…
[The rest of the phone number is muted to protect client confidentiality.]
Cindy Okay.
Greg Good year.
Cindy And Greg, can you tell me what today’s date is?
Greg Today’s date is…
[Greg pauses for a couple of seconds.]
Greg The 25th of Jul- of June, uh, 2012.
Cindy And how about the time right now?
Greg The time is approximately 15 minutes until 10.
Narrator Although Greg correctly answers these questions, you will want to ask him whether he has a clock or a calendar, and how he keeps track of time.
Cindy And can you tell me when your next doctor’s appointment is?
Greg Would that be physical doctor or psychiatrist?
Cindy Your psychiatrist.
Greg That’s coming up on July the 3rd.
Cindy And when you made that appointment, did the secretary give you what time to show up at?
Greg They give you appointment card.
Cindy Mhmm.
Greg And I keep the appointment card so I remember when I have them, but they usually call me and check up and see if I’m going to be able to make it there.
Cindy Okay. So right now off the top of your head can you tell me what time that appointment card said for you to be there at?
Greg The appointment card says like, 10 or 11 o’clock, but I don’t get there until after 12 because of my work.
Cindy Okay. And have you ever had a hard time being able to see the doctor getting in there late?
Greg No.
Cindy No? Okay, good. Greg, so just a couple of questions about who’s responsible to do certain things around your apartment, okay? So, who washes dishes here, Greg?
Greg I have to wash my own dishes.
Cindy You wash your own dishes, okay. And how about cleaning your counters?
Greg Cleaning my counters? Well, that’s me too.
Cindy So whenever you cook, you wipe up the counter space?
Greg Whenever— I get Mondays and Wednesdays off so on those days I try to straighten up a bit, you know, to keep it clean.
Cindy Okay, how about cleaning up the floors, like mopping or vacuuming?
Greg That’s me too.
Cindy You too?
Greg Yeah.
Cindy Okay, and cooking meals, who cooks meals?
Greg Me.
Cindy You do?
Greg Yeah, for one person. Just for myself.
Cindy Just for yourself.
Greg Yes, ma’am.
Cindy And how about shopping like groceries or just personal items?
Greg That’s me too.
Cindy You do your shopping.
Greg Yes I do.
Cindy Okay. And how often do you get around to washing dishes?
Greg Well, when I see that there’s a lot of them in there, I usually get to it and wash them up.
Cindy Okay. Would you say, maybe like once a week?
Greg Maybe two or three times a week.
Cindy Two or three times a week?
Greg Yeah.
Cindy And how about cleaning the counters?
Greg Not really every day but maybe every two days or so.
Cindy Every two days? Okay. And how about cleaning up the floors: sweeping or mopping?
Greg That’s me.
Cindy How often would you say you get around to doing that?
Greg Well, I do that, um, about every 3 days or so, the floors. Because I vacuum in here and I mop and sweep the kitchen, you know? And plus, I’ve got to find, in my schedule, I have to find time for work, you know, so it keeps me pretty busy.
Cindy Okay, it sounds like you’re busy. So let’s go over to the kitchen and let’s go ahead and take a look in there and see and continue with the rest of the questions there.
Greg Okay.
[Greg and Cindy get up and go into the kitchen and stand in front of the kitchen sink. There are dirty dishes in both sides of the sink basin.]
Greg This is my kitchen, Cindy.
Cindy Okay, Greg, and you have dishes here?
Greg Dishes, yes, I have, uh, I wash my own dishes after I use them for eating, you know, my meals.
Cindy Okay, and you have some sitting here. How long have they been here, would you say?
Greg Well, I don’t know. I don’t really pay any mind to that. I just, I just lay them in there and when I get to it, I get to it.
Cindy Okay, so can you just walk me through to when you do get around to washing the dishes, how would you go about doing that?
Greg When I get around to cleaning them, I put the soap in the sink, and I’ve got bleach down here.
[Greg picks up dishwashing soap then opens a cabinet door by the sink to show where he keeps the bleach.]
Cindy Okay.
Greg I’ve got scrub pads and sponges and I go to town and I get ready to wash my dishes.
[As Greg explains, he points to his scrub pads and sponges.]
Cindy Okay. I see some of these scrub pads and sponges here, they’re a little—
[Cindy picks up one of the sponges and it appears to be partly brown.]
Greg Oh they’re a little old, but you know, I mean, I like to use everything to the fullest of the extent that it can last.
Cindy Okay, and how about your counters here? What do you usually do with that?
[The camera pans to the counters. They have some brown stains on them.]
Greg Well, when I wash my dishes, I usually take a wet rag or sponge or something and wipe down the counter.
Cindy And do you ever get under these appliances here?
[Cindy gestures towards a toaster oven and other small kitchen appliances on the counter.]
Greg Uh, yeah, sometimes, yeah. I get around to it sometimes.
Cindy Okay, so sometimes you’ll get to do that. Greg, can you walk me through the steps of making a sandwich? What would you do to make a sandwich?
Greg Well, when I have bread…
[Greg chuckles and shrugs as he walks to the refrigerator and opens it.]
Cindy When you have bread?
Greg When I have bread. I don’t have bread right now. I haven’t been to the market, but there’s where I keep all of my, uh, food supply. My icebox and my freezer, it’s got all my stuff that I eat.
Cindy So what would you use to make a sandwich?
[Greg closes the refrigerator door and opens the freezer door.]
Greg This is my freezer. Um, to make a sandwich, like, I’ve got bologna.
[Greg closes the freezer door and opens the refrigerator again to point to the bologna.]
Greg I’ve got bologna and cheese and when I have bread, I put it on the bread and—
Cindy Okay, so let me see here.
[Cindy looks into the fridge, finds the bologna, and checks the expiration date.]
Cindy You’ve got some bologna in here.
Greg Mhmm.
Cindy And what else would you put?
Greg What else would I put? Cheese maybe and you know, I’ve got some lettuce up there, and…
Cindy Do you have cheese right now? You’ve got lettuce in here, you said?
Greg Oh, I think I have some here in the door. Couple of cheese slices.
[Greg locates some slices of American cheese and shows them to Cindy.]
Cindy I see.
[Cindy sees and uncovered Tupperware in the fridge. It contains some reddish-brown crumbles.]
Cindy What’s this?
[Greg laughs.]
Greg That’s a little bit of cat food.
Cindy Cat food?
Greg No, not really. It’s just something I put in there and I forgot about it.
[The camera pans out to show more of the fridge. There is a dark red stain on one of the plastic shelves. ]
Cindy So these are some leftovers you haven’t taken out?
Greg Yeah, something like that. Looks like crinkled up bacon.
Cindy Okay, I see.
Narrator You will want to check the expiration dates on perishable items. Remember to check the bins at the bottom looking for spoiled food.
[Cindy walks over to one of the kitchen cabinets and opens it.]
Cindy Okay, Greg, so we’re going to start right over here on this cabinet here.
Greg Okay.
Cindy Let’s take a look in here.
[The cabinet is largely empty. There appear to be a couple of pieces of dishware and a spice bottle.]
Cindy So, tell me, you have here.
Greg A couple of bowls and dishes.
Cindy You have some bowls, and you have some spice there. What’s that? Ground cumin?
Greg Yeah, it’s ground cumin.
Cindy And you have a Glade?
Greg Yeah, that’s a little air freshener there. Sometimes the air gets a little bad so I spray the spray and hope it goes away.
Cindy Okay. Let’s see what you have in this drawer here.
[Cindy opens up one of the drawers. It is full of a variety of items including pull bottles, a disposable camera, and a small bottle of rubbing alcohol.]
Greg Yeah, that’s all my doo-dads.
Cindy So just kind of a mismatch of things?
Greg Uh, toothpicks, and you know, antacids and alcohol and whatever.
[Cindy takes out and looks at a bottle of Tums.]
Cindy Some Tums there.
[Cindy then picks up a pill bottle.]
Cindy What about this medication?
[Greg picks up a disposable camera.]
Greg I’ve got a camera.
Cindy Is this where you usually store your medication?
Greg That used to be my medication. That’s not my medication no more.
Cindy Oh, okay. Oh! Well, it expired on ’09.
Greg Yeah.
Cindy So this is medication you’re not taking anymore?
Greg No, I’m not taking it.
[Cindy then picks up another pill bottle.]
Cindy Okay. How about this one, here?
Greg Same with that one. I don’t do it.
Cindy Okay, so you’re just holding on to these?
Greg I don’t know. They’ve just been in there. I never thought to get rid of them or anything. I just— I’m kind of like a packrat.
Narrator This is a good example of problems with organization. At this point, you’ll want to ask Greg if he has trouble remembering where he puts things. In this way, he can start to make the connection between lack of organization and problems in his everyday life.
[Cindy closes the drawer and opens another cabinet door.]
Cindy Let me go ahead and take a look down here.
Greg Okay, that’s my, uh—
Cindy Is this where you would keep cleaning supplies?
Greg Yeah, that’s cleaning stuff, yes.
Cindy Okay, not much in there.
Greg Not much in there right now, but…
Cindy Okay, so you might need some of that to clean up.
Greg Yeah, I’ll probably get some, you know, some cleaners or something to put in there.
Cindy Okay, so we’re going to go ahead and keep on looking around the kitchen to look at the rest of the things, okay?
Greg Okay.
[Cindy and Greg walk over to a microwave that’s on a kitchen counter. There are six pill bottles on top of the microwave.]
Cindy Okay, Greg, I see your medications up here. Is this where you usually store it?
Greg Uh, yes, ma’am, I take my pills from there.
Cindy Okay, and just a couple of questions: who’s responsible for taking the medication? Does anyone remind you, or tell you?
Greg No, it’s all on me.
Cindy All on you? Okay. How about picking up your medication from the pharmacy?
Greg Uh, whenever I need more, I go back to the pharmacy.
Cindy You get those as well?
Greg They give me medicine over there.
Cindy Okay, and how about getting out to your doctor’s appointments?
Greg Um, the Center for Healthcare Services. Like I mentioned before, I go every month to get my blood work and every three months for the doctor.
Cindy Okay, so you’re responsible to get out there on your own?
Greg Yes, ma’am.
Cindy Okay. So Greg, how often do you take your medication?
Greg Well, I take it at night, whenever I’m—whenever it says it on the bottle. I have to take it that way.
Cindy Okay. Do you ever have trouble remember to take your medication?
Greg Sometimes I forget, but, you know, I try to remember, you know, but don’t tell my landlord because I’ve got to take my medication.
[Both laugh.]
Cindy Okay. Do you ever run out of your medication? Forget to pick up your refills?
Greg Sometimes but a lot of times they’ll deliver my medication here so I don’t really have to go out to get it.
Cindy So if you forget to take your medication, when do you usually remember to take it?
Greg The next available time.
Cindy The next time, okay.
[Cindy begins looking more closely at each of the pill bottles.]
p>Cindy Let’s see here.
Greg Oh, there’s Clozaril, some Zestril, some Metformin, Tricor, and Lipitor.
Cindy Okay, and are there any special directions as far as how you’re sup— oh, this one says, ‘Take with food’.
Greg Yeah, well, I don’t always remember that either, but you know like I said, sometimes I skip breakfast, so I don’t really take it with it, but when I remember, I eat it with food. But I take it anyway, you know, whether it’s with food or not.
Cindy You still take your medicine?
Greg Yes.
Cindy Okay.
Narrator Now would be a good time to count the medication and compare how many pills are missing to the number that should be missing based upon the date on the bottle.
Cindy Let’s see. We did talk about your doctor’s appointments earlier. Are there ever times that you have to miss your doctors’ appointments?
Greg No, that’s a no-brainer. I have to go. It’s required of me, so I have to be there. That’s the law.
Cindy Okay. If for some reason by chance you had to cancel or reschedule your appointment, do you know where to call?
Greg Yes, I do.
Cindy Okay, do you have that number?
Greg Like I said before, I have an appointment card to show me what time to go to the clinic.
Cindy Do you have that appointment card somewhere?
Greg Um, I, um, I think it’s in my truck. I don’t know.
Cindy Okay, so you’re not sure where that appointment card is.
Greg I don’t know where it is, yeah.
Cindy Okay.
Greg It’s around here somewhere.
Cindy Okay. And that’s usually where you get the number to call? You don’t know the number?
Greg No.
Cindy And what information would you give the doctor’s office to let them know that you had to reschedule or cancel?
Greg Well, basically, if I have to reschedule or cancel, it may be my other doctor - my physical doctor - or it could be that I have to work on that day, and I just couldn’t make it so I’d have to call them and make other arrangements, but other than that, I usually try to get out there when it’s time for me to be there.
Cindy Okay. What about any health problems that you might be having, Greg? You mentioned that you’re taking Metformin and Lipitor?
Greg Yes, I’m Type II diabetic, but that’s borderline so it’s really kind of iffy. If I keep my blood sugar low-because I think they said I had high blood sugar, but I watch my sugars myself and I take Metformin for it, and I’ve got a doctor monitoring for it.
Cindy Okay.
Greg And then, I’ve got Clozaril which is for my Schizophrenia, my Tricor which is cholesterol, my Lipitor which is a different kind of cholesterol - I guess the bad and the good, take the good with the bad - and some Lisinopril. That’s my high blood pressure medication.
Cindy Okay. And are there certain kinds of things you need to do to kind of-you mentioned your diabetes, checking your sugar. Do you check your sugar daily?
Greg No, I don’t monitor my sugar, I just know that I can’t have too much sugar, and I need a little bit, you know. I don’t want not enough sugar.
Cindy Okay, so you watch your diabetes by watching what you eat?
Greg By watching, yes. I try not to eat too many sweets.
Cindy Okay. Greg, if you had an emergency, what number would you call?
Greg 9-1-1.
Cindy Okay, and are you having any trouble with your medication or getting to your doctor’s appointments recently?
Greg No, like I said, sometimes I forget. I don’t always forget, but sometimes I do and I can tell when I forget because I get a little hyper.
Cindy Okay.
Greg I get a little hyper so usually if I start feeling a little hyper, I’ll take my medication.
Cindy Okay. We’re going to talk about your finances, talk about some of your bills. Do you feel comfortable doing that?
Greg Sure.
Cindy Okay. Do you mind if we sit at the table to talk about that?
Greg Sure. Have a seat.
[Greg pulls up a chair for Cindy and they sit down at the table.]
Cindy Thank you.
Greg You’re welcome. It’s a little messy on the table, but—
Cindy Oh, that’s okay.
Greg We don’t need it anyway.
Cindy Okay, Greg, so who’s responsible for paying your bills?
Greg Basically, um, well, I get a social security check for disability from the government. Most of that is used for all of my bills like my rent, my gas money or no, not gas money, I pay for that myself, but food, my mom gives me money for food, for grocery shopping, and just for other things that come up like sometimes I’ll have to get the oil in my truck changed and just, you know, bills, basically. I get TV. I pay for my Time Warner and I have a cell phone, and I have to keep that on a bill too.
Cindy Okay, now, you mentioned that you get your disability check. Are you your own payee, or?
Greg No, no. My mom’s my payee and she helps me budget my money as far as paying my bills and that stuff.
Cindy Okay, so she’ll pay the majority of the bills like rent, you said, and budget out for groceries and your cable?
Greg Yeah.
Cindy Okay, and when she pays the rent, does that include your utilities?
Greg The water’s free but I have to pay my CPS myself.
Cindy Okay, now does mom go ahead and write the checks and send them out?
Greg What she does is she writes the check and she sends it to me in my mailbox and I take it and give it to my landlord for the rent.
Cindy For the rent, okay.
Greg Well with CPS, I get a bill in the mail from CPS and I take it to H-E-B and then I pay it there.
Cindy You pay it there. Does she send you the check for that as well?
Greg Um, yes, she does.
Cindy Okay, so she’ll send you the checks for everything that you need?
Greg Well, when the CPS bill comes up she always tells me to call her and I call her and she transfers it from her bank over to my bank.
Cindy Okay, so you have your own bank account as well?
Greg Uh, it’s a small thing. Not even worth worrying about.
Cindy Okay, and how about your grocery shopping? Who does the grocery shopping?
Greg I do my grocery shopping.
Cindy Okay, and any other shopping, like for clothes or hygiene items?
Greg I don’t hardly ever do any clothes shopping. Well, when I get my hygiene, I go, you know, that’s when I go to the grocery store, that’s when I go to get my groceries. I usually get my hygiene stuff too.
Cindy Okay, how about cleaning supplies?
Greg Usually, yeah, I buy a few things at the grocery store to clean up with.
Cindy You buy that too? Okay.
Greg Even though my cupboard is bare.
Cindy Do you mind telling me how much do you get from your SSDI check? Do you know the amount?
Greg I’m really not that sure. It’s around $1,000, I think.
Cindy Okay.
Greg That’s a month, but my mom gets it. She’s my payee; I don’t get the check.
Cindy And do you know how much your rent is here monthly?
Greg It’s about, around $300 a month.
Cindy Okay, and how much would you say you spend on cable?
Greg I don’t know. I don’t get that bill; my mom gets that bill.
Cindy She gets that bill?
Greg Yeah, and she gets my phone bill too.
Cindy Your cell phone bill?
Greg Mhmm.
Cindy Okay, and how about your—you mentioned your CPS bill. How much do you think your CPS bill is?
Greg Oh, I don’t know it varies sometimes. Sometimes, it’s real little, you know, not a whole lot and then other times it’s very expensive. It goes up in the summer because you know you have to cool your place, you know.
CindyOkay. How often would you say you go out and pay your bills?
Greg Well, like I said, I don’t go out too much. When they bring my medicine to me, I pay them there. They deliver it here and I pay them. But, um, my other bills, CPS, that’s at least once a month.
Cindy That’s at least once a month?
Greg Yeah.
Cindy Okay, and you said you go out to H-E-B to pay that?
Greg Yes, I do.
Cindy Okay, and mom helps for budgeting, you mentioned?
Greg Mhmm.
Cindy What happens if you run out of money early in the month?
Greg Well, if I run out of money, she helps me and sometimes she doesn’t, but you know, that’s why I get all my odds and ends through the check that I get from my part-time job.
Cindy Okay.
Greg And I stay beneath the—beneath the um, limit, from Social Security. I have a part-time job but they say it’s okay as long as I don’t make a certain amount over the month.
Cindy Now, I noticed when we were looking through some of your cabinets and some of your drawers, you were missing some of the cleaning supplies. Is there a reason why you don’t have those right now?
Greg Well, I haven’t been to the store yet. I go to the store, when I go to the store, I go every 1st and 15th.
Cindy Okay.
Greg Every two weeks. I believe that’s what it ends up being.
Cindy Okay, and is that because that’s usually when you get money?
Greg Yeah.
Cindy Okay, so you do your shopping at least every two weeks. Do you ever run out of things unexpectedly?
Greg Sometimes I do, but if I do there’s a Dollar General right up the road there and I just go over there and get what I need.
Cindy Okay. Do you ever forget, when you go to the store, what you went there for?
Greg Um, of course, yeah, sometimes, but sometimes I make a list too so I don’t forget, but that’s only if I remember to make a list.
[Greg and Cindy laugh.]
Cindy I was going to say, ‘Do you sometimes forget the list?’
Greg Sometimes, yeah.
[Grey and Cindy laugh.]
Cindy Okay, now you mentioned that sometimes you’ll use a shopping list but sometimes you’ll forget to write the list.
Greg Yeah, right.
Cindy Okay, and what are some advantages of using a shopping list?
Greg So you don’t forget, and you know it—it saves on time too, you know. You can just look at the list and scratch it off when you get the object. It saves a lot of time because if you—if you don’t take a list, you’re looking at one object for five minutes to figure out of you need that or not. So by that time, you’ve wasted all that time, and it’s best to do it with a list, I guess. I don’t always remember, but…
Cindy Okay, so what’s something that you’d say you buy almost every time you go to the store?
Greg Olives.
Cindy Olives. Are those your favorite?
Greg I love olives in my salad.
Cindy Olives in your salad? Okay, and can you tell me how much a jar - or is it a can - of olives costs?
Greg About $2.48.
Cindy Okay.
Greg $2.38 or $2.48.
Cindy Okay. Now, we’re going to talk a little bit about your neighborhood, okay, about the area that you live in.
Greg Okay.
Cindy Is it safe to walk around in your neighborhood?
Greg I would hope so. They got monitor cameras all over this place.
Cindy How about if you were going to go out for a walk at night?
Greg I’d feel comfortable, you know, because you know, like I said they got monitors and they see everything that goes on.
Cindy Okay, and how about getting to places, Greg? What’s your best transportation?
Greg My truck is my only source of transportation, although I do have a bus card, but…
Cindy Do you ever use your bus card?
Greg I did when I was a volunteer for the Animal Defense League. I used my bus-I used to ride the bus out there so I use my bus card when I need it.
Cindy Are there—do you ever have any trouble with your truck? You mentioned having to save money for gas.
Greg Yeah, yeah, it—it’s a gas guzzler.
Cindy Mhmm. Are there times you limit the things you do because you don’t want to spend on gas?
Greg Well, I try to save the money that I get from my job, save it for another week because I get paid every two weeks. If I save it for one week and by that time the next week is coming up and I get paid again, I’ll save it again. Because like I said, it is a gas guzzler. I don’t know why but I end up putting a lot of gas in that truck.
Cindy Okay, and what are some places that you like to go around the community?
Greg I used to love - when I had time when I wasn’t working - I used to love going to Dave & Buster’s. That was our thing, we’d go there and play games and try to win things, you know.
Cindy Okay. Do you ever have a hard time going places alone?
Greg No.
Cindy No? Okay. Can you tell me how many years of school you completed?
Greg How many years of school I completed? Okay, well, this is going to take a minute. 12 years completed in high school, and I had about 9 months, maybe a little more than that on electronics with Hallmark Aero-tech. They used to be over here but they’re a college now.
Cindy Okay, so some technical school for electronics?
Greg Well, it was electronics trade school, kind of.
Cindy Okay, so trade?
Greg It was just the basics.
Cindy Okay. You said you’re currently employed part-time?
Greg Mhmm.
Cindy And what’s your job, Greg?
Greg Well, I’m a lowly, lowly janitor.
Cindy Okay, and how many hours a week—
Greg Custodial worker, I guess.
Cindy How many hours a week would you say you work?
Greg I work 4 hours a day for 5 hours, I mean 5 days. It’s 4 hours a day for 5 days, but on one of those days, on a Tuesday, I only have 3 hours, on every Tuesday.
Cindy Okay, and do you mind sharing with me how much money you earned this last month working?
Greg Well, I don’t know. I don’t make near enough.
[Greg and Cindy laugh.]
Cindy Okay.
Greg No but I, I get paid good. It’s like somewhere around it would be minimum now, I believe.
Cindy Is there ever times that your boss might criticize how you’re doing at work or—
Greg Sometimes, because I believe that he just wants to show me the way to do it, the right way to do it, and he would only correct me if he sees me doing something that might be wrong.
Cindy Okay, and how about getting to work on time? Do you ever have a hard time getting to work on time?
Greg No, any job I ever had I always like to go early, be there early.
Cindy Mhmm. How about anything that’s made you have to call in to work or miss work?
Greg I’ve only missed one day since I’ve been there and that was Mother’s Day so that was the only day I missed, and it was alright by him because I think everybody got off that day anyway.
Cindy Did you call and let them know you were going to miss?
Greg Mhmm.
Cindy Okay. These next set of questions, Greg, are just about your living situation. Do you live alone or with someone else?
Greg No, by myself.
Cindy Okay, and who are some people that you spend time with during the month?
Greg Oh, boy. Well, like I said, I got, um, well, I got a friend that comes and sees me every now and then.
Cindy Mhmm, and how about any family?
Greg Family? Well, yeah, I see my mom and dad a lot. I don’t hardly ever see my brother anymore, but he’s doing his own thing. He’s still got his job in the army, and my sister, she’s doing her own thing on the Northeast side. I’m basically here by myself.
Cindy Okay, but you get to see you mom and dad. How often?
Greg Oh, they invite me to come over sometimes. Like when it was Father’s Day, they invited me over and we had, you know, a meal to eat. They do a lot of-they like to call me when they do cooking because, you know, they like to cook for me which is nice. I really appreciate it, and I told them, you know, I said, ‘Don’t worry because I’ll help you, you know, if you need help.’ They’re too proud. They wouldn’t do it.
Cindy How about talking to them on the phone?
Greg I talk to my mom almost every day on the phone.
Cindy Okay, anybody else?
Greg Yeah, my dad. He gives me a wakeup call in the morning so I don’t miss work.
Cindy Okay. Any friends you talk to on the phone?
Greg Not really. You know, I don’t know too many people, I just go to work every day and do the best I and come home and watch my favorite shows on TV and go to bed.
Cindy Okay, how about at work? Any co-workers you talk to or—
Greg Sure, I’ve got other co-workers. Like, there’s David and there’s Chris, and there’s a lot of people there, you know. I get along with everybody there.
Cindy How about belonging to any groups or organizations?
Greg No, I don’t.
Cindy So Greg, tell me a little bit about things that you enjoy to do for fun.
Greg Like I said, sometimes I like to go to Dave & Buster’s, and somebody just, oh, I believe it was a friend of mine said am I going to be going to NAMI’s and yeah, I plan to, but it’s a Saturday, and I work on that day so maybe after I get off work I could go but…
Cindy Is NAMI something you participate in?
Greg Most of the time I used to do it when I didn’t have my jobs. About five months, five or six months, so since the beginning of the year…
Cindy That you haven’t gotten out there?
Greg Boy, time flies. Huh?
Cindy That you haven’t gotten out there in that long?
Greg No, because I have the jobs. I have the, you know, you’ve got to work. Everybody has to work. There are no free rides.
Cindy What about when you do go out? Or when you did go out, were there certain things you had to prepare for?
Greg Well, you got to make sure you have, you know, the money that you’re going to spend when you go out. Like, if you’re going to go to a movie, you have to have the money to pay for, you know, the admission ticket or whatever and um, I like to go to the movies sometimes, you know.
Cindy Movies is something else you like to do? When was the last time you did that?
Greg Well, I did that um, one Friday after I got off work. I went to go see a movie but I went to the wrong movie.
[Greg laughs.]
Cindy To the wrong one?
Greg Yes.
Cindy You said that that was a Friday after work. How long ago was that?
Greg It was on the 15th.
Cindy Okay.
Greg That movie had just been starting.
Cindy Okay, but you got it confused and ended up in the wrong one?
Greg Yeah, I went in there and I saw these cartoon characters and I said, ‘What the heck?’
[Greg and Cindy chuckle.]
Cindy Is there anything else you like to do or you enjoy to do?
Greg Um, yeah. Me and my friend, sometimes when it gets closer to the Fall, we want to go out and have a barbeque. Just me and him go have-cook some hamburgers and some hot dogs and stuff like that.
Cindy Okay. Have you done that or is that something you’re planning for?
Greg We’re planning for it. We haven’t done it yet. We’ve done it before, but that was a long time ago.
Cindy Like how long ago?
Greg Oh, heck. I don’t remember. Quite a long time ago. It was at that park up the street, but I dropped 4 hot dogs on the ground.
[Greg laughs.]
Cindy On the ground that time?
Greg Yes.
Cindy Are there certain things that you like to do, Greg, to kind of get you unwinded to kind of get rid of some stress?
Greg Um, I usually like to watch TV. I watch my favorite sitcoms like, I like ‘MASH’ and I like ‘Everybody Loves Raymond.’ They make me laugh and when I laugh, that relieves my tension and my stress.
Cindy How often do you get to watch that?
Greg Just about every day it comes on.
Cindy Everyday? Okay.
Greg When I get home from work or on a day off, I watch it.
Cindy You watch it, okay. How long do you say you spend watching TV?
Greg Quite a bit of time. When it’s basketball season by the way, and we lost, but when it’s basketball season, I watch the basketball games.
Cindy Okay. When you say quite a bit of time, how much time would you say you spend? Half a day? All day?
Greg On what, on the basketball or sitcoms?
Cindy On watching any kind of TV. Yeah, sitcoms or basketball.
Greg Well, I watch like, there’s 1, 2, 3, 4 episodes in the afternoon if I get off early enough and there’s some at night at about 8 o’clock, it comes on a couple of times. Then there’s ‘MASH’ which comes on 2 or 3 times a day.
Cindy Okay, so would you say, maybe half a day you spend watching?
Greg Give it two days.
Cindy About two days?
Greg Yeah.
Cindy Okay, and what are some things that might upset you, Greg?
Greg Oh, boy. Don’t talk about my mom. I just don’t like that. Some people think it’s a joke but I don’t see the humor in it.
Cindy Okay, and how would you handle it if someone were talking about your mom?
Greg Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Cindy What does that mean?
Greg Well, if they say something bad about my mom, they must want me to talk about their mom.
Cindy Okay. Does that always work?
Greg Not always. It’s the way my grandparents taught me.
Cindy What else could you do to handle that situation?
Greg Um, ignore them. They just want it for the attention. Just ignore them.
Cindy Okay. How about if you’re feeling stressed or you’re feeling nervous, do you—
Greg Take my pills, maybe.
Cindy Take your pills. Do you take medication for that?
Greg No, I have a belief that I believe strongly in. I use my laughter, you know, to laugh about things, for my stress.
Cindy Okay.
Greg So that I can calm my stress down.
Cindy But you’re not taking any medications for anxiety?
Greg No.
Cindy Okay. These next set of questions I’m just going to see how you would be able to get some of these things done, okay?
Greg Okay.
Cindy So, what would you do if you run out of medication before your next doctor’s appointment?
Greg Call the pharmacy.
Cindy Okay, and what would you do once you called the pharmacy?
Greg Pay them.
Cindy So, Greg, when you call the pharmacy, what kind of information do you need to give to them?
Greg The, the um, kind of medicine that I’m out of and they know the address so they come here anyway, and then, they bring it right to my door. Usually I don’t ask them about anything unless I’m out of that medication.
Cindy Okay. So if you were home and you’d hurt yourself pretty badly, what would you do?
Greg I’d either have to rely on friends or call somebody on my cell phone, or…
Cindy Who would you call?
Greg Um, if I fell down and hurt myself, same as if anything else were to happen. I guess I’d call my mom.
Cindy Okay. What if it was a really bad emergency, say—
Greg If it was really bad, I’d get 9-1-1 because they’re prepared for any part of the emergency, if it’s a fire or if you know, somebody falls and hurts themselves, or police, if there’s burglars outside or murderers, or whatever, you know, it would be good to get the police here because there are some emergencies that aren’t that big of an emergency though.
Cindy Okay, what if you were out in the community and you got lost, what would you do?
Greg Um, I don’t have GPS on my truck, so I would probably try to find-buy a map. Buy a map from a store or something and see where I’m at and where I need to go to and search it up on a map.
Cindy Use a map that way?
Greg Yes, ma’am.
Cindy Greg, what would you do if you noticed that you forgot to get off the bus at a stop that you need to be at?
Greg Either wait for the next one or just return to where I came from.
Cindy Okay, so you would wait for the next stop and get off there?
Greg Yeah, I’d have to wait until the next one, but to the place where I was going, I’d have to call them and let them know that I’d missed the bus and I’ll be late.
Cindy What would you do if you noticed that your refrigerator didn’t seem to be running and that you had a lot of meat in the freezer?
Greg Oh, boy. Well, I would go either call my landlord and find out when the power is going to go back out or call CPS and find out from them directly. Tell them my power is out and I’ve got stuff in the icebox, in the freezer that might go bad if we don’t get the power back on.
Cindy Okay.
Greg What do I do?
Cindy What would you do if you saw smoke coming from your oven while you were cooking dinner?
Greg Um, I had that before but if you look up there on my stove, you’ll see that there’s a vent thing there and a light. I turn the vent thing on and the light so I can see, and the smoke, if it’s coming from the oven, will go directly up there because it’ll draw the smoke out and there won’t be that much smoke because that’s another thing about this apartment; there’s no smoking because you’ve got fire alarms up there that go off when you smoke.
Cindy Okay, so the smoke detectors will go off?
Greg If that should happen, I’d grab a fan and try to blow the smoke away from the vents.
Cindy Okay. Now, what would you do if you ran out of money and you didn’t have any food for the last week of the month before you got money?
Greg Well, I’ve been in a similar type situation but I went to, um, my mom told me I should go to this place. It’s a church, and they have, like, a pantry thing there and you go and they give you free food, but you have to fill out a form.
Cindy Okay.
Greg And they give you stuff to eat, you know, free food, so that’s probably what I would do first off. Second off, if I didn’t have no money or anything, I guess I’d have my mom or my sister or somebody to bring me some food or something.
Cindy Okay. Now, let’s say you had a doctor’s appointment, but at the same time of your doctor’s appointment, your friend would like for you both to go and watch a movie. What are three things you could do to fix that problem?
Greg Okay. We don’t go to the movies, we go to the doctor first. That’s number 1 priority, then we can watch the movies if there’s any time left for movies, and that’s how I’d deal with it.
Cindy That’s how you would deal with it?
Greg The doctor is first, always.
Cindy Okay. Okay, Greg. Now, this next one, I’m going to have you walk me through a regular, typical day of yours, okay? So let’s start with what time you’d normally wake up at.
Greg Okay, I’ve got my clock that I set every day and it’s set for 6AM so I get up at 6AM and my father calls me at 7 just to make sure I’m up.
Cindy Okay.
Greg Then, after I, you know, wake up and get all of my stuff together, then I go to work.
Cindy What time do you—
Greg Well, I go early because, like I said before, I like to get there early in case, you know, be dispensable for my boss so I go early. But, um, I usually sit in my truck and wait until it’s time to go so the time that I normally start working is 9 o’clock in the morning.
Cindy What time do you usually leave your house?
Greg Somewhere round 7 o’clock or so.
Cindy Okay. What’s a regular Monday or Wednesday for you?
Greg Well, Mondays I set aside for my people to come and help me, you know, for me to straighten up and make everything, you know, clean.
Cindy Okay, so do you wake up those days at 6AM also?
Greg 6AM? Yeah, I have my time, my alarm clock but like I said, if that doesn’t go off for some reason, you know, my dad calls me and makes sure I’m up by the time I have to be at work.
Cindy Okay, so you’ll go ahead and spend some of the time on your days off—
Greg Oh, on days off. Well, I save it for cleaning, you know, and I try to fill the time, you know, with other things that I don’t have a chance to do when I’m working.
Cindy So what time would you say you wake up on days off?
Greg Um, I like to sleep in late sometimes because it’s my day off so I probably wake up about 10 o’clock.
Cindy About 10 o’clock.
Greg Yeah.
Cindy And then once you’re up, what would you do then?
Greg Once I was up at 10 o’clock, um, get ready for breakfast. Um, sometimes I go shopping on my days off. Um, watch movies, I don’t know if you noticed earlier, but there’s a lot of movies over there. If I’ve got any extra time I pop one of them movies in and watch it.
Cindy And watch movies?
Greg Yeah, because I’m sort of like my mom on that; I like to watch movies sometimes if they’re interesting.
Cindy If they’re interesting? Okay. So you said on your days off is when you’ll go ahead and do things that you don’t have time to do on your regular work days.
Greg Yes, and some of, an example of that would be like wash laundry or something like that, you know, something that I can’t do while I’m working, so I do it on my day off. You know, like shopping sometimes and I get Wednesdays off too. Mondays aren’t my only days off, but I try to fill my day with things that need to be done, you know, shopping and laundry and all of that, cleaning up, you know.
Cindy And once you’ve finished doing that, that’s when you’ll go ahead and watch some movies? Watch some TV?
Greg Yeah, if I have extra time, I’ll watch TV or watch movies or something. Yeah, just to fill the time and relieve a little bit of stress. I think I told you before I like to relieve my stress.
Cindy You did mention that. Okay, Greg, we’re going to go ahead and go into your bedroom.
Greg Yes, ma’am.
Cindy Take a look in there and we’ll continue the rest of the tour there, okay?
Greg Okay.
[The camera pans over Greg’s bedroom. The bed is made but there are clothing items and other miscellaneous things on the bed. There are more clothing items on a few different spots on the floor, in addition to a pair of sneakers.]
Greg This is my bedroom, Cindy.
Cindy Okay. Is this where you regularly sleep at night, Greg?
Greg Yes ma’am.
Cindy Okay. How many hours of sleep are you getting at night?
Greg I try to get my 8 hours sleep a night.
Cindy Okay. Do you feel well rested and refreshed in the mornings?
Greg Yes ma’am, I do.
Cindy Okay. Having any trouble sleeping?
Greg No, not really.
Cindy No, okay. What’s your regular bedtime routine? What do you do before you go to bed?
Greg What do I do before I go to bed. Um, maybe watch a little bit of TV.
Cindy Okay, anything else you do?
Greg No, just basically get ready to go to sleep. I have to take my medicine before I go to bed.
Cindy Okay. What are some things you do to get ready to go to sleep, you said?
Greg Uh, well, I watch a little bit of TV and when I get through watching TV, I take my medicine and go to sleep.
Cindy Okay. Are any of your medications supposed to help you with sleep?
Greg My main medication, Clozaril, it’s for Schizophrenia. That medication helps me sleep at night. That’s why I take it at night.
Cindy Okay, and just a couple of questions of who’s responsible to do certain things as far as, um, for your bed time. Waking up, who wakes you up in the mornings?
Greg Who wakes me up? My trusty brass clock.
[Greg points to a brass alarm clock on a chest of drawers beside the bed.]
Cindy Okay. You mentioned earlier that your dad will call you—
Greg He’ll call me on my cell phone around 7 o’clock to make sure I’m up.
Cindy Okay. And how about making your bed?
Greg Well, I usually don’t. I just leave it made and lay down on top of it, but I don’t like to get underneath the sheets, you know.
Cindy Okay.
Greg Unless I have company. If I have company I make it all up, you know, and make it nice.
Cindy Okay. How about cleaning up your room?
Greg Well…
[Greg sighs.]
Greg If you look at it, it probably needs a good cleaning now, but I don’t really sweat it too much. I’ll get to it when I get around to it.
Cindy Okay, so are you responsible for keeping your room clean?
Greg Yes, I am.
Cindy And how about doing your laundry?
Greg Yes, I’m responsible for that too.
Cindy Okay. You said that making your bed, you don’t. You just kind of use a blanket on top?
Greg I just, like, put a pillow over there and I just lay down. I’ve got this extra comforter to throw over my body if I get cold.
Cindy Okay, and how about cleaning your room? How often would you say you get around to doing that?
Greg Oh, well, I don’t know, maybe once a week.
Cindy Okay, and what kind of things do you use to clean your room?
Greg Well, I just try to pick up everything that’s on the floor and run the vacuum over it a time or two and then, you know, pick up all the clothes and make the bed and make sure everything’s good in here.
Cindy Okay, and where do you usually keep your clothes?
Greg Well, I’ve got my end table here that’s got all of my clothes and I’ve got some in my closet back there.
Cindy Some in your closet? I see there’s different, like, in that laundry basket, is there clothes in there? Is that all clean clothes? Dirty clothes?
Greg Well, most of it’s clean, yeah.
Cindy Okay, and how about the stuff on the floor?
Greg Well, that’s probably dirty but on my day off, I’m expecting to do a little laundry.
Cindy Okay. Where do you usually keep your dirty clothes right now?
Greg Well, like I said, I just throw them down on, you know, wherever I need to or I put them in my basket or something.
Cindy Okay.
Greg And then do laundry.
Cindy And after you do laundry, is that what you usually do, kind of keep it in that basket?
Greg Yeah, yeah.
Cindy Okay. Greg, what would you do if you lost a button on one of your shirts or your pants tore?
Greg Um, my next door neighbor’s a girl. She knows how to sew. If I lost a button, she’d probably sew it back on for me.
Cindy Sew it for you? Okay. Greg, if you were doing your laundry, can you kind of walk me through the steps of what you would do to kind of get that going?
Greg The laundry’s not here. My washing machine and my dryer’s not here. It’s a laundry mat up there by the office.
Cindy Okay, can you just kind of tell me what you would do?
Greg Well, I’d take all of my clothes, I’d put them in the washer, I put soap, and then I put the quarters in and um, run it and it takes, like, 30 minutes for one load to wash. Then I’d take them out and put them in the dryer. It takes an hour for the dryer to finish so I wait an hour and then I go back and pick them up. Then I put them away.
Cindy Okay. Do you do anything to get the clothes ready before you put them in the wash?
Greg Well, not really. I know I should but I don’t really have enough whites to do it. I would separate my whites from my coloreds but I don’t always have enough whites and sometimes I don’t have that many colored, but I would separate them and put a little bleach in the whites and put soap in the coloreds, but sometimes I don’t do that. Sometimes I just throw the whole load in one washer.
Cindy Okay. Greg, do you mind if we go through some of the drawers and look through them?
Greg By all means, be my guest.
Cindy Okay.
[The camera pans to the small chest of drawers beside the bed. On top of the chest of drawers are some miscellaneous items including a stuffed dog and a brass alarm clock. Cindy opens the top drawer and works her way down.]
Cindy So you have some, looks like some socks in here with some pajamas.
Greg Pajamas, socks, underwears, probably.
Cindy Okay. What do you usually keep in this drawer down here?
Greg More socks.
Cindy More socks, okay. In this bottom one, socks?
Greg Um, socks, it looks like some shorts.
Cindy Some shorts. It’s kind of stuffed in here, right?
Greg Yeah, it is. I’ve got it full to the top.
Cindy Okay.
Greg It should be clean.
Cindy These are shirts?
Greg Those are my t-shirts.
Cindy Okay, so those are kind of full in there. This one you could hardly open with so much in there. This one was really empty, so maybe—
Greg Well, I don’t know, maybe take—
Cindy Fix that a little bit later?
[Cindy then points to a laundry basket on the ground.]
Cindy What do we have in here? You said this is where you keep your clean clothes until you get around to putting it away?
Greg Yeah.
Cindy Okay, so what’s this stuff up here on top?
Greg That’s my miscellaneous stuff. I had some miscellaneous things.
Cindy You just put them on here?
Greg Yeah, a couple of movies—
Cindy So this is all clean laundry that you haven’t gotten around to putting away yet?
Greg Right, right.
Cindy Okay.
[Cindy walks to a fabric folding chair with some clothing items on it.]
Cindy What are the clothes we have over here?
Greg Some of those are my uniform clothes. Like I said, I have to wear black when I go to work so that’s part of them and then there’s some I just laid there that, they’re clean but there’s just a couple of shirts there that are dirty. I just, you know, I don’t separate them. I should, but—
Cindy Okay, so some is clean and some is dirty?
Greg Yeah.
Cindy Okay, and you have a couple of things that are there on the bed. Those are your pajamas?
Greg Yeah, yeah, my pj’s.
Cindy Are those clean or dirty?
Greg They should be clean. I just hadn’t picked them up yet, I guess. I don’t know.
Cindy Okay, okay. Well, if you don’t mind, we’re going to go over to the bathroom next to see how that is.
Greg Okay.
[Greg and Cindy walk in to the bathroom.]
Cindy Okay, Greg, so this is your shower here?
Greg Yes ma’am.
Cindy How often, in the last week, would you say you’ve taken a shower or bath?
Greg Every other day.
Cindy Okay, and how about washing your hair?
Greg Every other day.
Cindy And how many times have you brushed your teeth?
Greg Same, every other day.
Cindy Okay. In the last week, Greg, how many times have you worn deodorant?
Greg When I take a shower I usually put deodorant on-sometimes, unless I forget about it, you know, I go without, or…
Cindy Okay, and how many times in the last week have you changed into clean clothes?
Greg I like to change into clean clothes every day. Unfortunately, I don’t get a chance to because, like I said before, I have to wear black clothes for my job and they’ve got special t-shirts for me that I have to wear.
Cindy Okay, so when you work, are there times that you’ll wear the same clothes twice?
Greg Yeah.
Cindy Okay. More than two times?
Greg Um, I have 2 shirts, and I have 4 hats. I have to wear a hat and a shirt every day that I go to work. So that’s 5 days with a hat and a shirt on, and I’ve got 2 shirts and 4 hats.
Cindy Okay, so you’ll rotate them?
Greg Rotate them, yes, ma’am.
Cindy Okay, and then when will you usually wash your uniforms?
Greg My uniform, that is my uniform.
Cindy But when will you do laundry for them?
Greg Oh, on my day off or when I’ve got some time, you know. When I’m not doing something else.
Cindy Okay, and just some standard questions, Greg. Do you ever have trouble with the restroom, using the restroom, going to the restroom? Any of that?
Greg No, no. No problem. I learned that a long time ago. That’s what mom used to do to me.
Cindy Okay.
Greg ‘Get up on your highchair there and go to the restroom.’
Cindy Okay. How about anyone having to remind you or provide you assistance in doing any of those things?
Greg Oh, no. I do it by myself.
Cindy Okay.
Greg Self-sufficient.
[Cindy walks over to the shower.]
Cindy Okay. So just to take a look here in your shower, what do we—
Greg This is my basic shampoo and soap.
Cindy Okay.
Greg That’s, that’s normally what I use anyway. I’ve got more up here, you know, bars of soap.
[Greg opens a cabinet door to show Cindy the extra shower supplies.]
Cindy You have bars of soap in there? Let’s see what else you have in there.
Greg Yes ma’am.
Cindy You have some mouthwash.
[Greg pulls out some bars of soap to show Cindy.]
Greg Well, I use this soap, Irish Spring.
Cindy Okay.
Greg And I’ve got mouthwash and I’ve got razors and hairspray and cologne. My favorite cologne is Adrenaline.
Cindy Mhmm.
Greg By Adidas.
Cindy Okay.
Greg It’s my favorite cologne. That’s what I have.
Cindy You have some towels in there too?
Greg Those are some towels, yeah, and some sheets and some toilet paper and...
[Greg and Cindy close the top cabinet door and move to the bottom one.]
Cindy What do you usually keep down here?
Greg That’s my carpet cleaner. When I get ready to do my carpets, I put the powder down and clean the carpets.
Cindy And are those sheets back there?
Greg Those are more sheets, yes.
Cindy Okay, how about your toothbrush? Where do you usually keep your toothbrush?
Greg Uh, behind the cabinet, I think, somewhere back there. There’s, I use that one sometimes, too. It’s an electric toothbrush.
Cindy Okay.
[Cindy opens the medicine cabinet that is located above the sink.]
Cindy So in here you just have your deodorant and some other of your things?
Greg Yeah.
Cindy So a toothbrush in there, toothpaste there. Okay. Okay, Greg, now how about cleaning up the restroom. Who’s responsible for doing that?
Greg That’d be me.
Cindy That’d be you?
Greg Yup, that’s my chore.
Cindy Okay, so you clean the whole restroom: sink, toilet, shower, and floor?
Greg I do the best I can, yeah.
Cindy Okay. How often do you get around to doing that?
Greg Um, when I have time. I’ve got—I’m working against the clock here. I’ve got a schedule I have to keep up with.
Cindy Okay, and where do you usually have your supplies for that? Are there certain things that you use to clean the restroom?
Greg Uh, yes. That would be probably where that empty cabinet was up there in the kitchen.
Cindy Okay, you would store them there?
Greg Yeah, probably that’s where I’d put them.
Cindy Okay, and I see you have a closet here. Is this where you keep your clothes?
[Greg and Cindy turn to face the closet and Greg opens the closet door.]
Greg This is, yeah, clothes and laundry detergent. See, I used to have to have boots at my other job, so those are my rubber boots down there that I wore to the job. That’s my foot soaker.
Cindy Okay. So since we’re looking at the closet, Greg, can you tell me what you would wear if you were going to a doctor’s appointment?
Greg If I was going somewhere nice, I would wear one of my good shirts.
[Greg motions toward what looks like a short-sleeved, collared, button-down shirt in navy with a palm trees and beach scenes printed on it.]
Greg And if it’s just to somewhere where that ain’t very nice, I’d wear a regular t-shirt.
Cindy A t-shirt. How about if you had a job interview? What would you wear for that?
Greg Probably one of my nice shirts with a pair of slacks. I have some slacks up there somewhere.
Cindy Okay, and if you were going to go and spend the day at the park?
Greg Shorts and a t-shirt, I guess.
Cindy Shorts and a t-shirt? Okay, and how about if it was really cold outside?
Greg If it was cold outside I’d wear—I tell you what, I’ve got a hat in there. I don’t know if you’ve seen it or not. It’s my Spurs Santa cap. I’d wear that and I’ve got an umbrella in case it rains. I’d wear a Spurs shirt.
Cindy Okay.
Greg And if it gets cold, I have, somewhere in there, it might not be this one. I have, like, sweatshirts, like this—
Cindy Okay, that you can wear?
Greg If it gets cold then I can wear something like that. It’s a sweatshirt.
Cindy Okay, and do all these clothes fit you right now?
Greg Oh yeah, yeah. Well, there’s some that are a little small on me. Since I’ve grown, I put on a, you know, quite a bit of weight. I’m trying to lose weight now but, um, I wear a 3x when I used to only wear like a 2x and a 1x. I used to be thinner, but…
Cindy Okay. Do you feel that you have enough socks and shoes?
Greg Oh yeah, I have enough clothes.
Cindy Okay, good. Okay, and also enough to get you through for the different types of weather we have?
Greg Yes, ma’am.
Cindy Okay. Okay, Greg, now we’ll go ahead and look out in the living room really quickly, okay?
Greg Okay, alright.
[Greg and Cindy walk out to the living room.]
Cindy So we’re just going to take a quick look at your living room space here.
Greg Okay.
Cindy Just going to ask you a couple of questions. So as far as cleaning up the living room, who’s responsible for doing that?
Greg Uh, cleaning up in here? It’s me. I don’t do nothing special. I just have all my movies over there and this is sort of like my entertainment center. I have my TV and stuff there, stereo.
Cindy Mhmm. So how about vacuuming the floors?
Greg I vacuum the floors. I clean up, yeah.
Cindy You clean up. And cleaning up on the furniture, maybe some dusting? Do you do that as well?
Greg Well, yeah. Basically, I don’t really—I’m not a stickler for detail but I clean up as best as I can.
Cindy Okay, and when you clean up in here are there any certain supplies that you use or that you would need?
Greg Just the vacuum cleaner and, maybe, I don’t know. That’d be it.
Cindy That’d be it. Okay, how often do you get around to cleaning up in here?
Greg Well, couldn’t tell it by looking but I try to make it every week.
Cindy About every week?
Greg Yeah, once a week.
Cindy Okay.
[The camera pans over the coffee table which covered in an assortment of items including mail, a plastic bag, a candle, some ceramic dishes, a remote control, a pen, a couple of small stuffed animals, earphones, a starfish, a pen, books, and some dvd’s.]
Cindy And we did see your vacuum cleaner in that closet back there that you have in the bathroom.
Greg Mhmm, yes, ma’am.
Cindy And these are all the movies you said that you’ll watch sometimes when you have free time.
Greg When I have free time, yeah.
Cindy Okay. Okay, Greg. Well, that was really all we had as far as going around and looking through your place. Thank you for letting us come out here and take a look.
Greg Glad to be of service. Sure.
[Greg and Cindy shake hands.]
Cindy Okay, thank you.