Today, I found out from one of volunteers that one elderly had been admitted to hospital. As my gut feelings told me, I immediately asked what happened and decided to visit her. Then came the son. I gave him some food and asked him about his mother. He told me that it was the third time his mother had been admitted to hospital. After he left, I told one volunteer about this and informed her that I would be visiting her later. That volunteer agreed and there we went after we finished most of the things.
At the hospital, I felt that this volunteer had been very prejudiced about the elderly's son. When the son wanted to know more about the mother's condition and whether she could be discharged, this volunteer told the nurse that he was incapable of taking care of her because he was a mentally ill patient. Even when the doctor came, she repeated the same statement. I felt sad for this kind of sterotyping. Why must someone keep telling others that this person is mentally ill? There is nothing wrong with mentally ill person. We all fall sick. When we fall sick, we take medication. So why labeled the son to this extent and kept repeating that he was incapable of taking care of the mother when she was just an outsider? Maybe her intentions were good but the approach is wrong.
When I saw how the son doted the mother by stroking her hair, I thought to myself,"When was the last time I actually took time to talk and listen to my mum?" The kind of love that is shown by this son to his mother is nothing less than any mentally healthy person. I just pray that such sterotyping to say that mentally ill person cannot take care of others be diminished. Let us be fair to them. They are not as bad as we think them to be.
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