Sunday, January 11, 2015

Adults and severe cognitive disabilities

Ack!  I am getting more and more frustrated as time goes on at the discrimination, fear and and lack of acceptance of adults with cognitive disabilities.  It might seem odd that when some of my kids have been adults for a long time that this is becoming more of a problem for us.  It might be that we have been living in a protected bubble for so long by having had professionals surrounding us that have known us for decades.  This ended last year when we lost our paediatrician and the big kids lost our family doctor.  The biggest part of our family doctor's charm was that not only is he an excellent physician but he was raised with an older brother with severe autism.  My kids loved him and he couldn't have been better with them.

I wish I could say it was the general public that was having more of an issue in regards to adults with severe cognitive disabilities but unfortunately it has been more professionals.  Doctors and dentists both inpatient and in the community, social workers etc the list goes on.  These are people that should know better however their fear, stereotyping and even intolerance exist none the less.

The hour is late so any hope of coherence will soon be lost but this is a subject I want to write more on.

Let me leave it at this....adults with severe cognitive disabilities are just as loveable, adorable, valuable and any other positive adjective you can think of the day after their eighteenth birthday as they were the day before.  They deserve the same degree of compassion and respect as any other adult with the added twist of requiring an acceptance of the fact that cognitively they are not adults. This fact should not make them scary.

         


















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