I attended Bizlink talk last Sat to understand more on how Bizlink helps people in the diabled community looks for jobs in open/sheltered employment. Well I am not sharing on this... instead it is on something that I encountered during the talk.
One of the caregiver was venting her frustration on her experience with Bizlink. Her son went to Bizlink for vocational assessment in 2005 however he did not make it through to be selected for employment. She was more upset with Bizlink rejection letter to her, as there was no alternatives/references given to her, than her son failing to go pass the assessment. Her whole world collapsed then and she felt helpless. She is not expecting her son to get a job to support the family rather it was more of an avenue to let son integrate into the society... in fact she was even prepared to give her son more allowance in order to make it substainable for him to work.
As she relates the incident, I could see and sense her disappointment & frustration even till this moment. Fortunately, she is very persistent in seeking employment for her son (now at KFC) and her effort finally paid off. I am glad to hear that. It is heart warming to see the love this mother showed for her son but more importantly, her never say die, never give up attitude is something for us to learn.
I relate it to another incident that happened to Boon Ling early this year. He was caught throwing things off his HDB flat as most of you recall. I still remembered clearly the relief showed by his mother when this incident is finally closed. If not for Mr Goh -> MINDS -> Boon Ling's TDC intervention, she would be totally lost then.
What I am trying to say, support (either internal within the family or external from organisation/volunteers like you) to caregivers are very important because it does continue to give them the extra hope & belief despite the challenges they have experienced with their children for so many years. Sometimes, just some words of encouragement or a pat of the shoulder could easily give them the extra courage to move on in their lives... this I have just experienced it.
-choon seng
PS: Anyway, we have feedback to Bizlink to be more careful in their rejection letter to people who failed to make it through their vocational assessment... so that in the moment of disappoint of not getting pass the assessment, the families will still retain some hope with the society :)
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Hitting head... Bitting hands
Sooner or later I will be doing that, just like Weizhi... frustrated! Cos I really don't know what is happening to Weizhi recently :(
Ever since there was some disruption to his DAC schedule, a couple of weeks back (things in DAC are back to norm soon after), Weizhi has been displaying some behaviour which I am unable to comprehend. It has been a nightmare at least for me when he went outing (this is happening in his DAC outings too). He has been wetting himself since the last 2 outings... in fact tracing back, it was found that whenever he went outing with us, he would wet himself on the transport back to project. This seem common. However, for the last outing, it got even worst though I tried my best bringing him to toilet as frequent as possible. He already wet himself twice in Sentosa. He then wet himself on the transport back to the project not once, not twice but thrice. It has been a nightmare for me bringing him for outing and it is also getting on my nerve as I keep reminding myself to remember to bring him to toilet.
Today on his way to project, he wet himself on the taxi and when he alight, he wet himself again!
There was alot of speculation did he do it deliberately because everytime when he wet himself, it was quite wet (alot). However, whenever he wet himself, he would be very frustrated, hit himself & want to change his wet clothing and I could see he is upset because his eyes were red. If it is not deliberate, it would mean incontinence and initially I suspect is it due to the behaviour management medication he was taking. However, after spoken to his mum, I found that he was only on medication for 2 days and have stopped taking it since then. Could it possible be incontinence out of sudden?
I wonder what could the doctor do if we bring him to the doctor for diagnosis, for incontinence treatment? Would the doctor understand him and know how to attend to people with special needs?
To make matter worse... I don't know why he is starting to hit his head and bit his hands so hard & so often nowadays. I can understand if he did it immediately after wetting himself or if the weather is hot. What I couldn't understand is even after bringing him to the playground to cool him down and the weather was good, he still did that to himself. Even when he is in the classroom listening to his favourite Westlife songs and with fan directly blowing on him, he still hit his head & bit his hands. I could see his eyes were red and yet couldn't do anything, I felt so useless.
Unlike Phang Wei who is usually frustrated by hot weather and who will calm down after cooling him, offering him food and letting him listen to his radio, Weizhi is different. It seem I need to put in more effort to understand him... maybe I am not up to the task!
Sigh.... I am not giving up but I don't know how to help him!
-choon seng
Ever since there was some disruption to his DAC schedule, a couple of weeks back (things in DAC are back to norm soon after), Weizhi has been displaying some behaviour which I am unable to comprehend. It has been a nightmare at least for me when he went outing (this is happening in his DAC outings too). He has been wetting himself since the last 2 outings... in fact tracing back, it was found that whenever he went outing with us, he would wet himself on the transport back to project. This seem common. However, for the last outing, it got even worst though I tried my best bringing him to toilet as frequent as possible. He already wet himself twice in Sentosa. He then wet himself on the transport back to the project not once, not twice but thrice. It has been a nightmare for me bringing him for outing and it is also getting on my nerve as I keep reminding myself to remember to bring him to toilet.
Today on his way to project, he wet himself on the taxi and when he alight, he wet himself again!
There was alot of speculation did he do it deliberately because everytime when he wet himself, it was quite wet (alot). However, whenever he wet himself, he would be very frustrated, hit himself & want to change his wet clothing and I could see he is upset because his eyes were red. If it is not deliberate, it would mean incontinence and initially I suspect is it due to the behaviour management medication he was taking. However, after spoken to his mum, I found that he was only on medication for 2 days and have stopped taking it since then. Could it possible be incontinence out of sudden?
I wonder what could the doctor do if we bring him to the doctor for diagnosis, for incontinence treatment? Would the doctor understand him and know how to attend to people with special needs?
To make matter worse... I don't know why he is starting to hit his head and bit his hands so hard & so often nowadays. I can understand if he did it immediately after wetting himself or if the weather is hot. What I couldn't understand is even after bringing him to the playground to cool him down and the weather was good, he still did that to himself. Even when he is in the classroom listening to his favourite Westlife songs and with fan directly blowing on him, he still hit his head & bit his hands. I could see his eyes were red and yet couldn't do anything, I felt so useless.
Unlike Phang Wei who is usually frustrated by hot weather and who will calm down after cooling him, offering him food and letting him listen to his radio, Weizhi is different. It seem I need to put in more effort to understand him... maybe I am not up to the task!
Sigh.... I am not giving up but I don't know how to help him!
-choon seng
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