Sean McDonald

Sean McDonald is one of Atlantic CIL's most active consumers. There is rarely an activity or support group meeting where you won't meet Sean. The last time we wrote a story about Sean was in November of 2021 so we wanted to provide an update.

Sean lives with cerebral palsy, autism, and anxiety. The social aspect of participating in peer support groups hasn't always been easy for Sean. He is very open about his goal to respect other's boundaries and has made great progress in becoming an effective communicator. He admits, "At first I looked for special treatment and expected people to make concessions for me, I would take the group off topic." But now he has gained the communications skills that help him stay focused and participate in a more respectful way. We recently spoke with Coach Tardis Parker, who provides Atlantic CIL's bi-monthly Health Connection Calls of which Sean participates regularly. He explained, "What I appreciate about Sean, is that he always shows up for himself and others. Sean adds a lot of flavor to our Health Connection Calls with his thoughtful and encouraging expressions. I feel like Sean is willing to learn and apply things learned. I appreciate Sean in our community."

The friends Sean has met in the support groups along with working with his Independent Living Specialist, Donald Campbell, has encouraged Sean to keep working on his goal, even when it's difficult. Some advice Sean would give to anyone with the same goal is to, "Do your best to respect other's boundaries even when you aren't perfect, but keep going to the groups, the practice helps."