February 14 Class Reflection

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 Feb. 14 Class Reflection - 

Suffer the Little Children Documentary and UT- Boiling Center for Developmental Disabilities guest speaker: Dr. Bruce Kiesling.

Photo from https://www.istockphoto.com/illustrations/special-needs-children

    Today in class we watched a documentary titled Suffer the Little Children, and had a guest speaker named Dr. Bruce Kiesling, who is apart of the UT- Boling Center for Developmental Disabilities (BCDD).  We watched the horribly sad documentary first, and then had some light on the subject with Dr. Kiesling. 

Suffer the Little Children is a program about the awful experiences and treatment at Pennhurst State School and Hospital that was open from 1908-1987. PennHurst was an institution for mental and/ or physically disabled people. In the early 1900s, the public saw mentally handicapped individuals as dangerous or criminals. They were seen as a burden for families and felt that these people needed to be contained and taken away from the general public. Pennhurst was basically a prison for people with disabilities. These people were treated like animals. Some were tied up, laying in their own feces. The ages ranged from infants to adults, and they were all treated as if they had no value of life. They were looked at as incompetent of living a normal life, so they were taken away to live as they were seen... which was useless.

 There was graphic language and images that would never have been used today. Although this documentary was heartbreaking, we then had guest speaker Dr. Kiesling come in and update us on the new resources and interventions for people with disabilities today. 

Dr. Kiesling is apart of BCDD.  He told us about the modern and ethical ways of treating clients with disabilities. He gave us history of the horrible institutions that were once used, but are now all closed due to malpractice and dehumanization of these clients. We heard about their research on these individuals and how to best help them in their daily lives. There are tons of community service projects as well as trainings for more help and resources for people with disabilities. These clients are seen as humans, not burdens. They have nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, psychologists, and many more healthcare workers that are both qualified and passionate about helping individuals with disabilities. They are educated and willing to help to change the publics perspective of disabilities, as well as caring for people who struggle with them. 

I appreciated being able to see the dark side of treatment, but then automatically hearing how much it has progressed since the institutions have closed. Dr. Kiesling did a great job sharing both history of treatment for disability, and then bringing attention to the progress today and how the nation is still learning and growing for both education and inclusion to these amazing individuals. 


                                          

                                           Photo from https://www.istockphoto.com/illustrations/special-needs-children




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