Sharing Love
Loving care that you can touch
One kind move from donors and family members will give Po Leung Kuk the flexibility to arrange resources for service development, and give blessings and love to different people in the community.
After suffering an illness, Man Wah lost function of her legs. She needs an electric wheelchair to move around. After using her upper body to support her body movement for different positions over time, the muscles in her hands have become stiff and painful. She also has carpel tunnel syndrome that aggravates the neurological pain of her fingers. Even simple movements such as extending her hand to pick up an object is not easy for Man Wah. Very often, she cannot get to the things she can see.
Luckily, Man Wah has been accorded Po Leung Kuk’s home support service for people with severe disabilities. She has been evaluated by the professional team of physiotherapist, occupational therapist, nurse and social worker. Based on her physicality, cognition, social needs and self-care abilities, the team has formulated personalised goals for her and provided recommendations and assistance in buying suitable rehabilitation devices, and helped ease her pain through physiotherapy.
Felix is her occupational therapist. He helped Man Wah shop for assistive devices for home use and for going out to help her lead a normal life. “We have a pressure-relieving mattress that can help ease the numbness and pain on the back and the waist. We have also acquired an electric wheelchair with adjustable height and a pressure-relieving cushion. With this she can elevate herself to reach for things she wants to pick up. It can also reduce the numbing pain caused by prolonged sitting on the wheelchair.” On the other hand, the team’s physiotherapist helps her stretch and offers manipulation therapy to improve the mobility of the upper and lower limbs and ease pain. Ultra-sound therapy is also applied for pain relief. The nurse helps to monitor Man Wah’s health and guide her on weight management. The social worker coordinates all forms of services to ensure Man Wah receives appropriate assistance.
With the support of PLK, Man Wah’s pain symptoms have eased and she has showed great improvement in self-care. She has become more active in the community and joined in all forms of recreational activities. “I join exercises with a rowing machine, sailing, hiking and ball games. I cannot picture myself doing this in the past. I like boccia the most. I dream of joining the Hong Kong team one day. Unfortunately, Hong Kong does not yet have a suitable category for my form of disability.” Though she showed disappointment, she could not hold back her enthusiasm. “I’m thankful to the PLK team. Without their help, my life would not have been this interesting.” The fingers that once caused her excruciating pain even with the tiniest movement can now pick up a ball. She can also steer herself everywhere in the community, heading towards her dream.
With love, life is full of meaning and achievements.
Nurturing growth
One kind move from donors and family members will give Po Leung Kuk the flexibility to arrange resources for service development, and give blessings and love to different people in the community.
Little boy Chi Him is in the autism spectrum. His mother seemed to transform into a different person when looking after him. “I would blow up at him wanting him to catch up and follow instructions.” Behind her frustration was pressure, helplessness and worry. “I wanted my son to move from a mainstream school to a special pre-school which would be the best arrangement for him. But the grandparents objected. In public, when Chi Him was out of control, people would look at him strangely. There were hurtful remarks like ‘is your child an idiot’. This made me lose confidence in myself.”
Children with autism are not good at expressing emotions. Their sociability is weak. Parents may want to improve the way they guide them, but sometime they don’t get the effect they want. That’s the source of stress and a trap for destroying relationships. Later, Chi Him began to study at PLK Chao King Lin Early Learning Centre. His mother also received help from social workers and clinical psychologists on how to discipline special children.
The centre emphasises developing children’s confidence. Chi Him is encouraged to be the class monitor. Therapists also provide targeted intervention, applying training leveraging Chi Him’s love of English. At first, Chi Him occasionally hit classmates in class. After a year of training, his behaviour and self-care have improved significantly.
Chi Him’s mother has also learned something new about herself, and found the true meaning for the mother-child relationship. “I cannot apply other people’s standards on my child. In the past, I just wanted my child to show progress and neglected that I also needed to improve. Excessive demand on the child was useless. Social workers and clinical psychologists helped me understand that I had overlooked the attitude I should adopt as a parent. I want to thank manager Mr. Low, social worker Ms Ma, and clinical psychologist Mr. Ng for standing by me in the most difficult period to help me grow.”
With improvements in expressing himself and controlling his emotions, Chi Him was evaluated as mildly autistic in the latest assessment. Chi Him’s mother is even more pleased about the improvement in her relationship with him. “My son will come over and ask me to play the car game with him. He also asks me for hugs.” When asked what she wants to say to Chi Him, she took a deep breath and said: “Chi Him, thank you for being by my side. We will work hard together. Your brilliant performance shows me that there is a lot mom has to learn. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn to be a good mother.”
Let love enable deeper meaning. Your actions can nurture lives, and give a vibrant future to the people benefiting from your benevolence.