Hi all,

So I have some medical questions  here, and I'm trying to find
out if there's any connection between Cerebral Palsy and these
other  medical issues if that's indeed what they are.  I'm very
weak in the area of medical terminology so I ask your indulgence
while I stumble my way through.  I'll set this up as best I can
via fictitious example.

So we have two people.  Person A and person B. Both can be male
or female.  Person A  has Cerebral Palsy from birth,  and uses an
electric wheelchair.  They are in there mid to late  20's and
have severe speech limitations.  They have lived  independently
in their community for a little over two years  and have 24-7
staffing.

Person B is the primary staff person for person A.  Among other
duties,   they assist person A in finding and hiring other staff. 
All staff for person A are in there early to mid 20's.

Since moving out on their own, person A has always bin plagued by
an unusually high amount of staff turnover.  Usually on an
average of every two weeks to a month.  Person B is told person A
is very hard to work with.  Person B is told, person A isn't very
patient when it comes to working with staff to help better
understand them, and   They loose their temper  to the extreme. 
At times when they don't feel they're being understood, they will
often at the top of their lungs order staff to just go away and
leave them alone.  Then person A just stays in their room
refusing to say or do anything.  They will often behave in this
manner for up to three hours at a time.

Also When person A is in this state, they will take their anger
out on staff with frequent bouts of wetting them sells.  There
are staff past and present who feel person A is deliberately 
wetting them sells as a way of getting back  at  one particular
staff or another.  There have also been incidents when person A
often puts  them sells and staff at great risk.   On more then
one occasion, person A has gone into the street after being
advised by their staff that it's not safe to do so.  Staff
describes  the look on person A's face as one of: "Don't tell me
what to do, I'll go in the street if I want to!!"

Person A has also been approached by total strangers in the
presents of staff, and told how it's not a good idea to just dart
out into the street like that in their wheelchair.

When person B sits down with person A and shares the information
given to them by the rest of the staff, after some hesitation,
person A tells person B they are aware of how angry they get, but 
they cannot give any reason for why they get so angry.  They tell
person B when they start to get angry, they try and stop them
sells but they just cant.  Person B has advised person A that if
their anger continues unchecked, at some point, it may become
really hard to find adequate  staff.  Person B also tells person
A he has heard through the grapevine that person A is getting a
reputation in the community as someone to stay away from.  Person
B has tried to assist person A in coming up with ways of trying
to deal with their anger.  They've talked about everything from
person A just going outside for a while, to slow breathing
exercises.  While these kinds of things seem to work  now and
then, often they end up being no more then a temporary band aid
with the underlying  issues just waiting to surface all over
again.

Now if the above scenario were a real life situation, and if one
of my co workers  asked me what my thoughts were about person A,
I would say they were someone who was still adjusting to living
on their own.  Someone without a lot of maturity or life
experience.  Someone who is still learning just who they are and
what they want their life to look like.  So there for, they have
a right as all of us do to make misstates along the way.  Even at
those times when they end up putting their independence at great
risk.  Someone who is justifiably frustrated do to the constant
challenge of having to make them sells understood to all those
around them.  Or they might just be a real punk who just doesn't
care about how their behavior affects those around them.

However at the same time I wonder.  I wonder  if there are issues
being overlooked regarding person A.  So my questions to all of
you are these:
With all the information I've given you in the above fictitious
example, aside from Cerebral Palsy, are there other medical
issues going on here?  Is there some kind of cross over or hard
wire disconnect in person A's brain to where something gets
switched on or off, and the only way person A can express them
sells is by wetting them sells?  If so, is this directly related
to  Cerebral Palsy or could there be totally separate issues
going on here?  If this is a medical condition, is there a
specific name for it?  If this is directly related to Cerebral
Palsy what is the connection?  Could Someone direct me to a site
where I might learn more about these issues?

Thanks  in advance for any and all help, and everyone have a
greaaaat weekend!!

See ya-Gary

-----------------------

To change your mail settings or leave the C-PALSY list, go here:

http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?SUBED1=c-palsy