How can you act when approached by Mentaly retarded person, so that it's not considered abuse?

Question

I started working at this place where they house Mentally disabled people. They school them, let them live there. It's great, but i'm walking and they approach me, talk to me.. Which is great but today we had a lecture about how a simple hug can be abuse.. or any simple little thing may be considered abuse. And they told us that if we abuse them or take away their rights...we can be sent to jail.

Some of the disabled and metally ill people in that institustion are well enough to understand and be normal. But others can be violent and hyper.. so i'm scared some of them may rush into me and push me or hug me , and then i will be fined or punished.

Should i try to distance myself whenver they walk near me. Or what?

by the way. I'm not working directly with the people, but i often pass by them and some of them come to talk to me. My work in that institution is an office assistant doing filing and scanning..

Answer 1

don't distance yourself from them. it may only help to make them feel inadequate or unloved. instead, offer them a handshake and explain to them that you're not allowed to hug the residents. most will understand that. many times the residents are taught not to do that anyway b/c it isn't age appropriate.you can still be friendly with them with a handshake or a high five. ask the superviser to be sure about it but i think that would be okay.

Answer 2

I've worked in in this field and in centers with similar people. I've never heard such strict and paranoid laws and rules. First......hugging should not be considered abuse, as an innocent friendly hug. You should treat these individuals the same as you would any else in the world. They are no different. The only other time you might come into contact with these people is when (some) can get violent by intention or not by intention. I had this one boy who tended to grab things he saw. People, bags, anything. He had no intention to hurt anyone or anything, but he was an adult with a childs mind....and his ADULT grasp on, well, me...when he grabbed me was quite hard and hurt. Pushing one off would be appropreiate here. After that i would always have him hold something in his hands. If he was holding something he wouldent grab. Contrary to what I have heard from your statement above, in this field, physical contact is unavoidable. You must guide some when you walk with them, help to feed them, go to the bathroom, etc. It's part of the job. I would question your place of work, and what kind of boss you are working for.

Answer 3

Welcome to the world of the stupid :(

I'm afraid the politically corrent wan&ers have caused more problems than they solve once again. Yes, for your own sake, you need to avoid them, it is safer to be cold, distant and unpleasant, than to be open and friendly.

Stupid really isn't it.

I am not sure what country you are in, the UK has gone to town on this sort of lunacy. The sad part is that for many people living with a mental disability - especially Down's Syndrome, a simple frendly hug can make a WORLD of difference to them - and the lack of one when needed, can cause great hurt / distress / sadness.

Because perhaps 0.01% of people might abuse the hug, 99.99% have to go without. Same goes for almost any other contact.

My sister teaches gymnastics and told me the latest bit of cretin-thinking in the UK at present - if you are teaching a child on a trampoline and you think it is about to fall out (broken bones as often as not) then you must NOT try to grab them - as it might be considered abusive.

Unless you can restrain them with clenched hands (!!!!!) then it is recommended that you leave the trampoline and adminster such assitance as it approproate once they have fallen.

Absurd? Yup - but ask a UK school gymnastics coach if you think I jest.

So the short answer is yes, sadly you must distance yourself and MUST be seen to repel any attempt at any contact at all.

After all, in the UK, you can be prosecutred for smiling at a women now - it can be treated as sexual harassment.

Perhaps one day we will get rid of the stupid people, though I somehow guess they are not going anytimes soon.

Answer 4

A mentally retarded human being who's in that challenge with the help of no fault of his/her personal, is recognised as a baby. He can nevertheless be attentive to God. in reality, like a baby, he might want to be more desirable conscious than those seen "more desirable sensible." Intelligence has no longer something to do with faith. The expertise of this global is seen 'foolishness' by technique of God.

Answer 5

Observe other staff that work there. Ask questions to both staff and the individuals that you work with. Learn from those with experience! After you've been there for a while you'll get a feel for how you should act around each individual.

Answer 6

First, you might want to seek help from your supervisor and receive some guidance from him/her on what you need to do in certain situations. Also, keep your distance as far as hugging and physical contact is concerned, but first and foremost, treat them as you would like to be treated. They are human and need to be included as normal human beings. I can understand your concern and caution, but they need to be treated as individuals and not as conditions.

Answer 7

Keep your distance we are in a mad society. Those handicap people should have the right to sex if they wish like in Holland where social services pay for screened sex workers to do it.