33 posts tagged “cognitive disability”
Today is the fourth anniversary of the death of Terri Schiavo. I don't really know what to say about it, except that I guess I just wanted to acknowledge it.
I miss her, this stranger. I miss praying for her.
Four years ago, a real woman's life was taken from her under guise of compassion and alleged choice. She was not brain dead. Though living with a profound cognitive disability, she was not completely void of cognitive awareness (a 'vegetable' being the derogatory term), although, that would not have made her any less of a person nor any less worthy of care had she been.
We have a terrible fear of acquiring a severe disability, and we have a terrible fear of those with severe and profound disabilities. Until that fear is resolved, the prejudice that leads to institutionalization and this kind of murder will not end.
Before we blame the secular bioethicists and the 'liberal media', though, perhaps we who call ourselves Christians should look at our own ungodly reactions to people like Terri Schiavo, that is to people who are experiencing pain and suffering.
Frederick K.C. Price of Crenshaw Christian Center:
We don't allow sickness in our home." (Frederick K.C. Price, Is Healing for All? (Tulsa: Harrison House, 1979), 20
... how can you glorify God in your body, when it doesn't function right? How can you glorify God? How can He get glory when your body doesn't even work? ... What makes you think the Holy Ghost wants to live inside a body where He can't see out through the windows and He can't hear with the ears? What makes you think the Holy Spirit wants to live inside of a physical body where the limbs and the organs and the cells do not function right? ... And what makes you think He wants to live in a temple where He can't see out of the eyes, and He can't walk with the feet, and He can't move with the hand? ... The only eyes that he has that are in the earth realm are the eyes that are in the body. If He can't see out of them then God's gonna be limited he's not going to be helped...” applause (Frederick K.C. Price, “Is God Glorified Through Sickness?” (Los Angeles: Crenshaw Christian Center, n.d.), audiotape #FP605)
In John 5 we read about a man who had been sick for 38 years sitting by the pool of Bethesda for the opportunity to climb into the pool after an angel had stirred it and be healed. When Jesus asked him, "Do you want to be healed?" vs 6), the man replied, ""Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me." (vs 7) After that, verses 8-9 say, Jesus said to him, "Get up, take up your bed, and walk." And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
That's basically all these verses say about this man's healing. However, both Joel Osteen, who often makes claim to the idea that being healed is one's own responsibility by believing a certain way, in his book, Your Best Life Now and Joyce Meyer in her book, Eight Ways to Keep the Devil Under Your Feet claim that this man lay around the pool feeling sorry for himself and making excuses. Says Osteen:
If you're serious about being well, if you really want to be made physically and emotionally whole, you must get up and get moving with your life. No more lying around feeling sorry for yourself."
Says Meyer:
I would think that after thirty-eight years, a diligent, determined person could have crawled over to the edge of that pool. Even if that man had only moved an inch a year, it seems that in thirty-eight years, he ought to have been able to get close enough to the edge to just roll over into the water when it was stirred up."
And here is where fear and prejudice of disability seem to come through in Meyer's words:
Thirty eight years is a long time to lie somewhere, waiting for somebody to do something for you. I would have been on the edge of the that pool, and next year when the angel came around, when that water started bubbling, I would have fallen in and said, 'Either I'm going to get healed or I'm going to die, but I'm not staying like this'" (emphasis mine)"
And dare we forget Todd Bentley? Bentley spent the summer parading people with illnesses and disabilities on stage, either physically assaulting them or telling stories about how he had physically assaulted people at other times, mocking them, and proclaiming miracles for them, though not one single miracle could be verified by the secular media. (Go to YouTube, search for Todd Bentley, and watch the videos for yourself.)
These are just a very few examples of well known Christians' 'appreciation' for suffering. This is sad.
Thankfully, they do not represent all of us.
I read these words today in Andrew Comisky's book, Pursuing Sexual Wholeness:
In this lifetime Jesus does not intend to satisfy very craving of the soul, to remove every weakness. For our deep longings are for Him above all else. That longing within us is not merely the result of personal brokenness or the influence of family and friends: it's intrinsic to our status as the created, as children disposed to grow upward to the Creator, through His love. Our fallenness highlights the folly of attempting to secure ourselves on the earth, through the creature. The Father employs the aches and longings that remain to keep us focused on Himself.
But His purposes don't end there. He desires to employ that which has yet to be healed as an avenue of His grace. Through the wounds and deprivations that He indwells, God creates in us a deep wellsring of compassion- His heart- toward others who are broken. He graces us and intends to use us to grace others."
Though Comisky is speaking to those who struggle with sexual brokeness, the same can be said for all Christians who want their best life now and expect bodily perfection and wordly prosperity. We are all broken. This brokeness forces us to find our strengh and sufficiency in Him. We then, in turn, offer the same undeserved mercy and grace God offers to us to others, to people like Terri Schiavo, caring for and protecting their life.
It's the way of the Cross. It's the way of Christ.
Does life have absolute value simply because it is human?
We have to answer that question. We have to. We have to.
We have to realize that bioethicists today, SAY NO. We have to become educated, at the very least aware, of what the consequences have been and will be of them saying no! We have to.
What do we say, Christ followers? How do we answer this question? A simple yes or no will suffice- for now. It's a start.
Most of us are already aware when we listen to God and let Him put His Truth in our hearts that the once taken for granted sanctity of human life is no longer a given, we will grieve for the life that has been lost, for the lives that will be lost, and for what our part has been. And it will hurt.
I know, believe me, I know, it's hard to look at what's happening. It makes us have to do all that 'thinking'. I know it's 'uncomfortable' when we seek God's Truth in this matter because we have to 'feel stuff'. We might offend people, even our friends, and be contraversial. We might even be called to speak out, make a stand.
You don't have to watch all of these videos. They are of a lecture given by Wesley Smith at Trinity Law School on the value of human life and what is happening in the field of ethics today. Watching all four will take 2 hours total of your time. So, you don't have to watch all of both videos.
But you do have to answer the question- Does life have absolute value simply because it is human? You have to.
Today at church we had the opportunity to hear some testimonies from people who had experienced healing from God this week. It was great to hear their stories of the power of God.
However, I was reminded, overwhelming so, of how much people with illnesses and disabilities are needed at my church. Yes, in part to see the glory of God revealed when He chooses to heal some of them. But also, to see the glory of God revealed when He chooses not to.
As the men and women told their stories of healing as quickly as possible with only so much time alloted them, focus and attention seemed to be only on the physical symptoms of their illness or emotional pain, with a quick declaration that God delivered them. As if they were saying, on the external, God healed my body or delivered me from this sinful outward behavior.
I know there was much more to their healings than just the external, and, again they only had so much time to speak. But what I need to see, as a member of my church, is what is happening with their hearts. Where is their heart as God is healing them? Where are they spiritually? What is God doing in their sanctifying process of making them holy? Is this physical healing a reflection of that transformation or is it something that God has given them for the sole reason of blessing them? Will this physical healing press them into deeper relationship and trust with God?
In addition to those who have had physical healing in their lives, I also need to hear from people who still struggle with a physical or mental illness or a physical or mental disability, yet are being transformed into the likeness of God for the glory of God, in faith and trust that the grace of God is sufficient in their weakness.
Yes, God does heal people sometimes of physical disability, of the chemical imbalances of mental illness, etc., and for that we thank Him and praise Him! But, He is not only concerned with the physical! He looks upon the heart! He may or may not choose to heal the leper, make the lame man walk, or give sight to the blind woman. He does not promise physical healing.
But He does promise life and life abundantly, which is found in the graceful relationship with His one and only Son. He promises new identity, freedom from sin, and transformed spirits.
Savation is for everyone!
He goes even further and uses those He chooses not to heal for His glory in making the church better! With the suffering around us, God gives us the gift of compassion and love- if we will take it. With those who struggle with their physical bodies or mental disabilities who trust in the sufficiency of God's grace, we learn to rely on that same sufficiency in our own weaknesses or when our time for suffering comes. And God gets all the glory!
A 23 year-old woman may be killed, may be killed the way that Terri Schiavo was killed. Her feeding tube would be removed, thus resulting in starvation and dehydration, and then death. Words like 'persistent vegetative state' and 'life support' are being thrown around regarding her story, but the only life support this woman uses is a feeding tube.
Why do the doctors and some of her family members want to end her life? Why was Mrs. Schaivo killed? I don't know. Because she was suffering too much? Because she wouldn't have wanted to live like this? I really don't understand the argument, and I'm tired of pretending I do.
These women are fairly easy targets for euthanasia. They cannot speak for themselves. The doctors and lawyers and some of their family members who advocate removal of the feeding tube put themselves in the sufferers' positions and can't imagine living like that themselves, maybe, thus acting on some sort of distorted empathy? We as a society judge the only alternative to 'poor quality of life' to be death, instead of making efforts to actually improve someone's life? Dare I say, the cost of the feeding tube, other medicines, and around the clock personal care?
In Canada an eighty-four year old man's feeding tube may be removed, also. He like the women is not dying. He incurred a brain injury in 2003, and has been in the hospital since October due to pnemonia. His body is not shutting down, and he is benefitting from the provision of fluid and food. Unlike the women, the decision to take this man's life is not being made by any of his family, but rather the hospital where is receiving care.
This man and his family are Orthodox Jews, and in an affidavit, local Rabbi Y. Charytan, said Orthodox Jews believe "life must be extended as long as possible and we are not allowed to hasten death." A lawyer for Grace General Hospital, however, told the court that doctors "have the sole right to make decisions about treatment - even if it goes against a patient's religious beliefs."
These people are alive. A feeding tube is not an 'extreme measure of life support'. It's the way they eat. As the 84 year old man's family's lawyar said, "...I don't see the difference if [a doctor] came in and put a pillow over his face."
I'm baffled. This is really happening. We in the west are actually deciding that the murder of innocent people is okay sometimes.
My heart is heavy, and I don't have words to describe what's going on in my head. How does one argue the case for life? Who would have thought we would have to?
Psalm 72
12 He will rescue the poor when they cry to him;
he will help the oppressed, who have no one to defend them.
13 He feels pity for the weak and the needy,
and he will rescue them.
14 He will redeem them from oppression and violence,
for their lives are precious to him.
Zephania 3
19 And I will deal severely with all who have oppressed you.
I will save the weak and helpless ones;
I will bring together
those who were chased away.
I will give glory and fame to my former exiles,
wherever they have been mocked and shamed.
20 On that day I will gather you together
and bring you home again.
I will give you a good name, a name of distinction,
among all the nations of the earth,
as I restore your fortunes before their very eyes.
I, the Lord, have spoken!”
I am SO glad this is being addressed.
Drugs Offer No Benefit in Curbing Aggression, Study Finds
By Benedict Carey
Published: January 4, 2008The drugs most widely used to manage aggressive outbursts in intellectually disabled people are no more effective than placebos for most patients and may be less so, researchers report.
The finding, being published Friday, sharply challenges standard medical practice in mental health clinics and nursing homes in the United States and around the world."
the article continues
"In the study, Dr. Peter J. Tyrer, a professor of psychiatry at Imperial College London, led a research team who assigned 86 people from ages 18 to 65 to one of three groups: one that received Risperdal; one that received another antipsychotic, the generic form of Haldol; and one that was given a placebo pill. Caregivers tracked the participants’ behavior. Many people with very low I.Q.’s are quick to anger and lash out at others, bang their heads or fists into the wall in frustration, or singe the air with obscenities when annoyed.
After a month, people in all three groups had settled down, losing their temper less often and causing less damage when they did. Yet unexpectedly, those in the placebo group improved the most, significantly more so than those on medication.
In an interview, Dr. Tyrer said there was no reason to believe that any other antipsychotic drug used for aggression, like Zyprexa from Eli Lilly or Seroquel from AstraZeneca, would be more effective. Being in the study, with all the extra attention it brought, was itself what apparently made the difference, he said.
“These people tend to get so little company normally,” Dr. Tyrer said. “They’re neglected, they tend to be pushed into the background, and this extra attention has a much bigger effect on them that it would on a person of more normal intelligence level.”
In my experience as a direct care giver and medication aide working with men and women with developmental disabilities, administering antipsychotic medication for those who exhibited aggressive behavior was very much the norm. Behavioral management techniques were attempted, though sometimes more half-heartedly than others, depending on the agencies I worked for. However, in almost all individuals displaying aggression, medication was the preferred method of managing behaviors.
I very much agree with part Dr. Tyler's statement about the people in this study getting so little company normally, that they are neglected and tend to be pushed into the background, and the extra attention from being in this study has a big effect on them. (Though I don't, as he does, believe it necessarily has anything to do with their low intelligence. This kind of attention would have a big effect on anyone.)
I'm not surprised that those who received the placebo had better outcomes than those who received the real medication. Antipsychotic drugs are powerful. They make one's head cloudy and can alter a person's reasoning skills which makes other behavior management techniques such as verbal prompts and positive reinforcement very difficult.
I'm not discounting drugs for those who truly need them, and indeed there are people with developmental disabilities who also have various mental illnesses, including psychosis, who do benefit from these kinds of drugs. But giving someone in one's care uneccesary medical treatment is called abuse.
NEW YORK, Dec. 10 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation and Priests for Life have jointly announced the establishment of the "International Day of Prayer and Remembrance for Terri Schindler Schiavo, and All of Our Vulnerable Brothers and Sisters" ("Terri's Day"), to be observed each year on March 31, the date of Terri's death.
The purpose of the day, the groups explained, is to foster education, prayer, and activism regarding discrimination against the disabled, and advocacy for people in situations similar to what Terri and her family faced.
Read the rest of the story here.
TAMPA, Fla., Nov. 19 /Christian Newswire/ -- Yesterday on This Week, George Stephanopoulos, in an interview with Senator Fred Thompson, commented that Terri Schiavo's autopsy proved she was "brain dead." The New York Times also reported on this interview, repeating that the autopsy proved Terri was "brain dead."
This is patently false and Terri's family is requesting that the media immediately stop using this offensive and inaccurate expression to describe her condition.
Read the rest here.
...so what do you call them?... 'them' being people with disabilities.
I knew the subject would come up, as it kind of sort of did in a recent post of mine and in recent conversations with friends, as I began sharing about my interest, heart, and love for people with disabilities, especially people with developmental disabilities, here on Vox and with others. I was kind of avoiding the subject, though. It's hard for me to voice my opinion as, for one, I don't know all the answers here.
Let me just share my thoughts and at the same time, say that my opinion and my ideas are NOT the end all, be all to what society, especially Christians, should 'call them', 'them' being those with disabilities.
I grew up very confused about and searching for identity myself. Who am I? What am I? Not able to find others to identify with, I clung to whatever name anyone called me, whether in jest, whether in labeling, or, later, in whatever I was diagnosed as being. ('Being'- key word here.)
I was the funny one. I was the fat, lazy one. I was the quiet one. I was the depressed, obsessive/compulsive, mentally ill one. I was the different one.
As much as I was glad to feel I was somebody with an identity and that people saw me, for I think labels for me meant I was seen, the labels were painful. I knew all of those labels fit me somehow, but I knew they weren't all of who I was. I knew I had gifts and talents in me somewhere amid all the negative labels, but I knew those weren't all of me, either.
All the labels were limiting. During my stint as the 'funny one', for instance, I wanted to have serious days, especially as I was becoming seriously depressed. Now, during my days as the 'quiet one', I want to speak more than I do, but I find it difficult to break free from the 'quiet one' label.
I began working with people with developmental disabilities in direct care, and was quick to memorize their diagnosis', such as IQ, 'mental age' (gag, I hate that term), and their sometimes accompanying mental illness listed not so subtly in their charts. That's how I began to identify 'them'. I labeled them as their diagnosis. "Oh, yeah, that's Fran (not her real name)", I'd say to new staff. "She's Down's, self-abusive, obsessive-compulsive, sometimes aggressive, MR (short for mental retardation), and she's 45 years old but has the mind of a two-year old."
YIKES! That hurts just remembering how quick I was and still am to label others. It really hurts.
Oh, I loved Fran. I became devoted to Fran and to the others I worked with. But I had a hard time seeing them past their diagnosis'.
Over time, a lot of time, as our relationship grew, it became more and more clear to me that Fran really was much more than a 'Down's MR'. She had real character and her own, unique personality. She related to me as a real person. Her 'issues' became more understandable to me, after I learned from where they stemmed, and I realized that they were actually quite relatable. I had many of her same issues.
Mainly, I learned the hard, painful way, and am still learning the hard, painful way that whatever we decide to 'call them' does not determine their identity or who they really are. Labels are convenient for quick judgements.
I learned that for both Fran and me, finding our identities outside of our labels- it's such freedom. I don't know how Fran has decided to ultimately identify herself. I haven't seen her if a few years, now. But I've chosen the Jesus route for myself. I have chosen to let him define me- after all, He created me. He would know who and what I am.
In whatever I 'call them', I try to avoid labeling or limiting those with disabilities. Really, often when talking about my friends or others I know with disabilities, mentioning his or her disability is not even pertinent to the conversation. When their disability does pertain, I use People First Language. (Please consider taking the time to check out this link.)
People First Language is just what it sounds like- putting people first. Instead of identifying a person as his or her disability, it simply suggests that they deal with something. (Who doesn't, though, right?)
Examples of People First Language include saying:
- person with a disability [instead of disabled person, handicapped]
- woman with a developmental disability, man with a cognitive disability [instead of mentally retarded]
- boy who has Down's Syndrom [instead of boy who is Down's]
- girl who has a learning disability [instead of learning disabled]
- woman with a mental illness, man who has Schizophrenia [instead of mentally ill, schizophrenic]
- child with Autism [instead of autistic]
- man who uses a wheelchair [instead of wheelchair-bound, confined to a wheelchair]
Important to note: Many people with disabilities do not wish to use this language. Many people with disabilities, as does my Vox neighbor Dirty Penguin, choose to accept their disability as a part of themselves and believe that one cannot nor should not be seen as separate from their disabilities. I haven't asked him, but many like Dirty Penguin may actually find some aspects of People First Language offensive.
I once took this viewpoint in regard to my depression and OCD. I believed my illness to be a part of who I was (verses what I believe now, that depression and OCD are something I have through which God creates character and calls out the real me.) So, while I very respectively disagree with this viewpoint, I understand it.
I would encourage the use of People First Language for general audiences. But because others may be offended by it, just know your audience.
I use People First Language really more for myself than for fear of offending others. It keeps me in the mindset of not labeling or limiting others.
I hope this makes some kind of sense. I feel out of practice in the blogging world. I can always edit, though.
I attended a worship thingy the other night and have something burning on my mind... well, it was burning, now it's just kind of warm.
It has to do with the worship leader, one of my favorites, by the way, of the worship 'thingy' using the term 'mental capacity of a two year old' in describing a man with developmental disabilities. He has no idea how offensive this term is, I'm sure, or he never would have used it. I'm sure everyone who uses the (sadly) common phrase as 'mental capacity' has no idea how limiting that term is or how it hurts the feelings of those with developmental disabilities who hear the label.
Terms such as 'mental capacity' and 'mental age' are diagnostic terms used to connote similarities in the stages of the developmental process when clinically measuring a person's IQ. They are becoming antiquated, as they aren't really accurate in describing a person's abilities, disabilities, or IQ. And when used by lay people such as we, who are using the only diagnostic tool of observation, the terms are used to make quick judgements and labels.
Bottom line- would you feel comfortable going up to a person with a developmental disability, watching her/him for awhile, noticing how s/he behaves, how well s/he does a task, or what-have-you and then approaching the person with the assertion of, "You have the mental capacity of a toddler"? Would you not think that's a little bit rude? So, if you wouldn't say it to a person's face, then why do it behind his/her back, or in the case of this worship leader, on stage in front of a hundred people with the assumption that there is no one in the audience with a developmental disability or one's family member sitting there who would find that offensive?
I guess what really bothers me is that this worship leader is always giving his testimony of the change and growth he has had in his own life and the change and growing that continues. However, to label someone else's capacity so presumptuously as to claim he met all of his capacity at age two... come on. That's not fair.
Granted this man's IQ may never change and there are things he may never be capable of, without a direct miracle from God. But this man's total capacity cannot be judged so quickly as to say it's filled, it's stuck at age two, that's all she wrote. That phrase, 'mental capacity of a two year old', says to me, the man with the disabilities will never grow any more, learn any new things, change in character, or develop in his relationships with his family, friends, and God. For the phrase denies the man all those possibilities.
Okay, I'll let it go. I can forgive this worship leader and let him know by letter or something how the way that he used that phrase hurt my heart. Hopefully, I can be more eloquent that I have been here. It's late, and I'm not feeling very wordy or explanatory.
'Night.
