C IS FOR COMPASSION

When I was six years old, the child care attendants at my school used to make me wait almost the entire day before helping me to the bathroom.  They had other duties that were more important such as working in the cafeteria.  

The attendants would get angry if I had an accident. The women were very intimidating.  

Instead of understanding that It was difficult for me to wait as long as they expected me to, they got angry and made me feel as though my having accidents were my fault.  Where was their compassion?

When the physical therapist at the school would stretch my legs and I would cry because it hurt she would say, "Oh, that doesn't hurt." How did she know?  FYI this woman did not have a degree in PT. Her degree was in PE. I guess she did not know how to behave any differently.

I was a little girl who was afraid and in pain. It would have been nice if the woman had let me know she was sorry for hurting me.  That the exercises were necessary to help my legs. I did not experience caring and compassion from a PT until I was in the eighth grade 

I wish compassion could be taught.  Here is how a class in compassion might be facilitated. Anyone interested in working with a person with a disability would be required to role-play specific situations that a person with a disability deals with daily.  Through that role-playing, the students would learn understanding. That's all we want. To be heard To be understood.

Before my mom died we had a caregiver who watched my mom struggle to prepare dinner for the two of us.      I was really the client and not my mom. The woman wasn't being paid to help my mom.  Because she wasn't being paid to assist my mom, I guess the woman felt she didn't have to help my mom. She didn't. It would have been nice if she had.

Compassion.  It's simple.  Just treat a person with a disability the way you would want to be treated if you were in their situation. Listening to them + learning from them = understanding.