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Today I was in the grocery store when I heard what I thought was a young toddler having a temper tantrum. It kept going on, and was getting louder and louder. Turns out it was an adult with Down syndrome and the situation had devolved into her hitting a woman (who I assumed was her mother) and literally acreaming at the top of her lungs.
I would have liked to have attempted to calm the situation if I could have, but my total lack of knowledge kept me from taking any action. So my questions are, what could/should I have done and how would intervention by a total outsider be taken by the parent/caregiver?
Caregivers who accompany disabled adults on community outings should be solid on behavioral strategies, ideally, so that they have a protocol in place to respond in the case of just such an occurrence. A parent would certainly be familiar with outbursts and the best route of response, and a paid caregiver/QMHP certainly should be trained prior to undertaking outings. The individual accompanied should also ideally have it reviewed before any outing what type of behavior is required, but who knows the situation.
It's typically not advisable, outside of a situation that clearly poses a significant danger, for a stranger to intervene unsolicited, for many reasons.
But it is always okay to engage the caregiver by asking, calmly, "Is there something I can do to help? What do you need me to do?"
As a mother of an adult son with Down syndrome, I would stay out of it unless just to notify management of a problem or call the police.
I would guess the issue was either with an adult with DS normally living outside the home and on an outing with a parent or the adult was with a care provider that didn't have a clue what to do with the individual which would be a very likely scenario here.
If I see a "normal" couple having issues in the public, I handle it the same way.
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