About Nature’s Place
Nature’s Place services include both therapy and education. These services can be taken independently, but if utilized together they will strengthen the sides of the Triangle of Ability.
Nature’s Place seeks to:
- Empower, educate, and enlighten parents, caregivers, and family members of individuals with challenges — they are the greatest tools of change in the lives of the individuals;
- Enlighten and educate all members of the general public to the impact and influence of kindness, understanding, and compassion for all living beings and creatures that comes when we strive to learn and respect one another;
- Provide public awareness and education of both traditional and non-traditional programs as well as how they impact and influence rehabilitative efforts and progress;
- Provide consultative rehabilitation services to the empowered, educated, and enlightened parent, caregiver, or family member;
- Provide a wide variety of educational workshops and seminars for parents, caregivers, and family members of challenged individuals as well as for the general public.
History of Nature’s Place
Nature’s Place was the creation of Director Deborah Adams, who has been in the field of speech/language pathology since 1991. Nature’s Place became a nonprofit corporation in 1997 and credentialed as a 501 ( c ) 3 organization in 1999. Since then, Nature’s Place has been functioning as an outpatient rehabilitation clinic offering speech, occupational, and physical therapies in a most unique setting. Nature’s Place is located on a 5-acre tract of land in northeast Polk County, Florida.
On our farm complex, we have over 20 animals that we work with in animal-assisted activities and hippotherapy to achieve established therapy goals. We also consider the outdoor environment as one of our greatest treatment tools. While we are still considered a medical facility, we do not accept any type of insurances or government-funded reimbursements. This is done in an effort to provide services to those most interested in the most cost-efficient manner. By not devoting support staff time and energy to the fruitless pursuit of insurance reimbursements, we are able to focus upon program and service development that will ultimately have the greatest beneficial impact for all.
The Need for Additional Services
The addition of the Learning Institute in 2008 was in recognition of a profound need. It had come to our attention through the years that parents, caregivers, and family members of challenged individuals were frequently unenlightened, uneducated, un-empowered and therefore unarmed to help that individual. Yet it has also been recognized that the team of parents, caregivers, and family members of the challenged individual is the single most powerful tool available to that individual to affect change and improve the quality of life for all involved. The Learning Institute is much needed in light of the growing prevalence of challenged individuals — particularly children.
It has been estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) that 10% of the world’s population has some type of challenge. The United Nation’s Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nation’s International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) estimated that the number of children with challenges under the age of 18 around the world are approximately 150 million, or one quarter or of the global challenged population. Autism alone is said by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to have risen to one in every 150 American children and almost one in 94 boys. It is the third most common developmental disability following mental retardation and cerebral palsy. Autism is more common than multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis, or childhood cancer.
Given the global prevalence of those with challenges, an exciting aspect of the services offered at Nature’s Place is that similar support services are also offered electronically. This is available by joining our online Triangle of Ability. The online Triangle of Ability provides monthly consultations with a therapist, a monthly newsletter, written reviews of books and articles about autism, disabilities, and hippotherapy, reduced seminar tuition, monthly chat sessions with other participants, access to other participants via e-mail as support groups, and the general exchange of information.