TALK: A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR - 05 12 12

Fabulous. Yesterdays bunch of Occupational Therapy students were bright, knowledgeable, wonderfully interactive and so rewarding. 

I was very excited to be there and found it hard to crop my material down to fit the hour and a half. There's so much to share!

Three things among many others:
1. 'When you've met one Autist, you've met one Autist'. The vast nature of the spectrum and the importance of taking the time to understand the individuals profile and the nature of the family; the challenges AND the skills. To be creative and adapt the OT solutions to the individual and the group. Being sure the solutions are something a family can manage. I was struck by this thought... 'with Aspergers, the skills are known, the deficits ignored, with Autism, the deficits are known, the skills ignored'.

2. What's the most important thing to remember when meeting a parent/carer and their child/loved one in a clinic? Answer: Ensure the parent/carer is in a place to hear you. So often, focus is on the child, the solution, time. The parent/carer is the conduit for the ideas of support for the child. Care needs to be taken of the parent, to empower them to carry out the ideas. Needn't take long but in the same way that if Axel is jumping around, I can not show him something, if a parent is emotionally bouncing off the walls... they can't hear well either. It's a hard journey, the number of meetings and resultant work can be gruelling.

3. Offering what is wanted and what is realistic. What's a good outcome? For me it was getting Axel to talk and be a adult with Aspergers, for now it is getting the best Residential School for him I can find. To be mindful of the differences between that which is my want, my dream and that which is needed and do that well. On a sad day, on the phone to my mother, I cried that I was failing in so many areas... she reframed my belief to... you are succeeding in what are very difficult circumstances. Love that, love her! 

On the train home I leafed through a discarded paper. I read on page two of The Times, 'Focus on compassion, nurses told'. It is reassuring to read the article vouching for training to learn how to promote compassion and care and not just technical skills and solutions. As we all know well, 'a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down'.

Part of the feedback form...

Please provide speaker specific feedback in the following areas:
• Knowledge : 65/65
• Engagement i.e. how engaged did you feel by your speaker : 64/65
• Relevance of the subject to you : 62/65
• Adequately responded to your questions : 64/65

I like those students a lot.