Memories
Working with people with learning disabilities I often hear people say oh they have the mental age of a child, they think like a child and this is often used as a justification for sheltering people from what others think as this scary world. A great example of this is when people die or become ill. Well meaning carers will hide the truth of someone's prognosis from people they live with, or a parent will exclude a grown up child from a funeral as it will upset them. My philosophy is everyone in life deserves five things love, kindness, dignity, respect and the truth. We underestimate people's ability to make sense of life's truths and to use them to make decisions about our lives by making assumptions about people's comprehension. So what made me think of this today, well I have just spent half an hour comforting my youngest daughter while she cried because she missed her granddad, he died a year ago but she still misses him, she is five. So if people with learning disabilities are supposed to be like children why are they denied the chance to grieve and express their emotions as my daughter does. In life there is one simple truth, we are born, therefore we die and if we don't help people understand this what a hugely confusing place the world is. People may think people have merely left them or that people feel they are blamed for this. So I would say to everyone don't label people with a mental age, don't limit them by telling them what they may or may not understand. For people who may find understanding the way we explain things that's our inability to do this not their disability. So let's all try harder to explain the truth for people instead of covering it up or telling lies to save feelings, they only cause more hurt.