By: searchingforsolidfooting

searchingforsolidfooting — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 17:49:53 +0000

Donna, this is chilling and it hurts my heart. I know some children can be more than challenging to deal with, and it takes very special people to work with them with an incredible amount of patience. But I keep coming back to – what if this was your child? And I worry about how things will be for Kate as she gets older and becomes more challenging. Many people have commented that we have to see this from the other side – from the perspective of the other children, and I agree that we do. But seeing from another side still does not excuse this. There is a better way.

By: Donna Thomson

Donna Thomson — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 13:46:47 +0000

Hi Julie, When Nick was in one his many stays at CHEO, we had a roommate who was a young boy of about 12. I LOVED this boy. He was without any family (except a grandmother in Nova Scotia) and he was a resident in a group home for kids with behaviour issues. The staff at the group home had restrained him and broken his leg in a spiral fracture, one that required surgery. This boy told me that he didn’t want to sign the consent because he wanted to stay in the hospital. He said that he had never been treated so well. What made matters worse was that the people from the group home that had bungled the ‘take down’ or whatever you call restraint visited him. They were obviously not chastened and still pleased with their power over this boy. He special needs, I suppose on the basis of his impulses, etc. but he was able-bodied and verbal. I’ll never get over that boy – what happened to him was so unjust. I hugged him and cried when we left because I knew there was nothing I could do and I’d never see him again. He was so vulnerable.

Comments on: We Can Do Better

By: searchingforsolidfooting

By: Donna Thomson