While I was walking Zoe today, I witnessed something that made me mentally shake my head. I saw a child standing in the road, infront of a house. An adult (probably their granny) said to this child "Where's the car? It's gone! Where's the car? It's gone!" It was actually a bike she was talking about, but anyway. She said it in the same you you would speak to a baby. It was the whole "speaking to the child like they are a baby" bit that made me mentally shake my head.
This little situation made me think of some things I had seen on Oprah and Dr. Phil. In those situations, one family member, or most of the family, was either experiencing, or had experienced, something life changing. That situation would cause all (or most of) the attention to go towards them. This is where Dr. Phil and Oprah said the same thing. They said "Don't forget about...." because the situation affects the whole family, not just certain members of the family.
That made me think of my time in Cape Town when I had to look after Shawn. It still hurts that I was treated as an afterthought when people phoned to see how we were. He was first, then me. I know he was very sick, but I was barely holding on mentally. But I couldn't just crawl into a hole and give up, because then we both would've died. He had that "luxury" but not me. The person that was just barely keeping everything together, had no backup system. I had no help. Absolutely none. Not until he died.
So I am left wondering this: Do the hospitals that offer rehabilitation (both from drugs and physical injuries) offer psychological assistance to the family members? If they don't, I would suggest that they start doing that. The family members will need it.
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