Tragedy in Florida

I just saw a story on social media about an 87-year-old grandmother who murdered her disabled grandson.  She was afraid of what would happen to him once she was no longer able to provide care for him.

It would be easy to pass judgement and say "how could someone do that to their own grandson?", but there is a lot to consider here.  Think about the incredible amount of failure that has to lead up to an event like this one.

The disabled man did not have parents who could care for him.  His father had died and his mother was estranged from him.  He lived at a group home during the week and was cared for on the weekends by his grandmother.  

The system must also share some responsibility.  We continually hear about the elimination of benefits for disabled adults.  We also pay caregivers a pitiful salary to care for people who need the most support.  This leads to high rates of turnover and substandard care.  The substandard care easily lends itself to turn into neglect and abuse.

Science shares a slice of the blame pie.  As I've stated in other posts, we have become adept at keeping people breathing, but have fallen woefully short matching that with tools for better quality of life.  

Perhaps grandma knows of instances of institutional abuse, or perhaps the history of the family is so sordid that he would suffer at their hands.  Whatever the case, elements around her caused her to believe that he would be better off in the arms of God than here on earth.  It isn't her choice to make, and I do not support her decision, but I can't condemn her.

If I were old and about to leave this earth, and someone showed me a crystal ball of Tyler being abused and neglected after I was gone, I'd have to think long and hard before leaving him that way.  I'm not sure that most special needs parents wouldn't feel the same way.

Its also heartbreaking to think of how the judicial system will have to decipher this.  She committed murder, and that cannot be ignored.  Hopefully she can be confined to a hospital for her remaining days as opposed to a jail cell.  Maybe the strain of caring for him became too much and she has a medically explainable loss of reasoning.  

It is heartbreaking, but also largely preventable.  To do that we must be willing to look at these failures and be willing to offer more avenues of care for disabled adults.  Within this I also make the same appeal for disabled veterans.  We have to listen very hard to this woman and understand her fears before we can understand the mind of the aging caregiver.  I'm just not sure we have the empathy it takes to do this anymore.

Be well and God bless.   Tom