Many High School students in Mount Vernon tend to choose a job at places such as Ace Hardware, Gary’s or the Mount Vernon pool. However, about a year ago Tatum Meyer, a sophomore at Mount Vernon started her first job at the Rehabilitation Center in Lisbon.  

When Meyer first started working there, she started with her friend Brynlee Dudrey, also a sophomore. After about a month Dudrey left the Rehabilitation Center. It was hard on Meyer to lose a friend there because most of the people she worked with are almost twice her age, and the residents who are treated there are closer to the age of her grandparents. She said that it was hard to form relationships with the residents because they often pass away not long after she meets them. 

Meyer’s shifts are from 4 – 7 p.m. on weekdays, and on weekends the hours are from 7 a.m. – 1 p.m. “It’s really easy money, however the only downside is that in addition to caring for people, part of the job is also cleaning up messes,” Meyer stated.

 Meyer starts out her day by putting on her scrubs when she arrives at work.  After she clocks into work, the day is pretty laid back and can sometimes be a routine for Meyer, until she has to take the residents to dinner.  Once she gets them to dinner, she has to pick out the food they want and walk them back to their rooms with the food.

“The job isn’t all that easy,” Meyer said. At times the job can be a little complicated because many of the residents have dementia. Meyer says that there have been times where the residents have run down the halls trying to escape the building. In this case the staff are then trained to find them with the tracker and take them back to their room to then talk to them. Meyers spends some of the money she earns on shopping, and also saves towards her college funds.

Outside of Meyer’s working life she likes to enjoy the outdoors and spend time with her family. Meyer’s favorite outdoors activities consist of fishing, camping and boating. She started camping when she was around 10 years old. Meyer and her family own a house on Lake Delhi. “It’s a fun time to spend with family and friends,” Meyer said of time at the lake. Her dad got her attached to fishing when she was younger, she has been fishing ever since. It was harder for Meyer to fish outside of the Mount Vernon and Lisbon area because she wasn’t old enough to drive at the time.

Working at the Rehabilitation Center has taught Meyer about working on her communication skills and has just taught her to be a better person.