Why We Could All Learn Something From Katie and Harvey? Anyone who’s been following Katie Price either online or in the papers will no doubt be aware of the various aspects of her private life. One of which, is about her eldest son Harvey. For those of you who can recall her TV documentary that was shown on BBC One at some point last year, her son Harvey was born with learning disabilities as well as underlying health issues.
Katie Price, Harvey and Me was an hour-long documentary that gave a glimpse into the mother and son world Harvey would leave a specialist school to go to a specialist College. Viewers got a glimpse into Katie’s world as a mother helping to support a child with various learning disabilities as well as challenging behavior.
There was a lot that the viewers got to see in regards to the complexities of raising a child with learning disabilities and complex needs comma as well as changing behaviors. We saw scenes where if Harvey became either overstimulated or agitated he would become loud and vocal, even going as far as self-harm when he would both scream and bang his head against the wall. In some incidents, he would end up creating a dent in the walls.
Anyone who works in health and social care and whose job it is is to support other people with various disabilities, complex needs, and/or challenging behavior will no doubt be all too familiar with the situations.
Even someone like me.
For someone such as myself whose job it is to support vulnerable people, I can thoroughly identify with how challenging it can be. Also, and this is something that I genuinely I cannot deny and is something that’s both parents and carers of people with needs and problems like Harveys, there will always be the odd moment or two when things can become just that a little bit too much.
As we saw with Katie, there were moments when Harvey’s behavior became just too much and she had to leave the room just to calm herself down. However, one thing that we could definitely admire her for is her resilience and no willingness to give up on supporting her own son even when things became just a bit too hectic
Put as people there is something that we could all do with learning, and of course remembering, when it comes to people with challenging behavior, learning disabilities and complex needs is that underneath all the problems they are still human beings.
Yes, people like Harvey may well come across as people who do challenge both us and themselves but deep down they are still human beings and deserve to be treated as such. Like anybody else,
they deserve care, love, compassion, respect, and above all else, dignity and the right to live life to the fullest they can be.Â
As someone who grew up with a learning disability, and occasionally challenging behavior, I am all too aware of just how potentially problematic this can be to the parents. I should know, my own parents had to put up with me and my problems as I was growing up. At the end of the day, there was no guidebook that gave specific instructions on how to support me as well as deal with my potential outbursts, they just had to learn how to deal with it.Â
I can’t remember much about being a small child displaying various problems, and no doubt there were times when my own parents probably all thought it a bit too much. However, they persevered and they continued in spite of all the potential obstacles, and why? Because they were my parents it’s and they knew that’s behind and all the problems that I was a human being.
And this is something that we can learn from carers, parents, and families of people with various disabilities and of course Katie Price herself. People like Harvey, including me, are still human beings and should always this is seen and treated as such.
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