CHAPTER 56

Original: 2007-10-02

Rewritten: 2026-04-07

We had thought that Lun was doing well and emotionally stable, and that his psychiatric medication could be reduced. Unexpectedly, not long after the dosage was lowered, he began hitting people.

Around noon that day, I received an urgent call from the group home manager. She told me that while riding in a minibus on the road, Lun had suddenly attacked the driver. As a result, everyone on board was unable to attend a birthday party at another residence.

While we were speaking, the group had just returned to the group home. The manager immediately checked on the staff, residents, and Lun. The reply was that everyone was safe. Lun was calm - and even smiling.

Since moving into the group home, Lun had performed very well. Seeing how happy and at ease he was, the manager informed Lun's attending psychiatrist, who then instructed that his antidepressant dosage be reduced by half.

Lun remained cheerful, and everything seemed fine. After half a year, the doctor and the group home decided to stop his medication altogether, hoping he would no longer need to rely on it. However, just over a week later, he began hitting staff - always without warning. On one occasion, he even struck the manager.

The group home had no choice but to seek immediate help from the psychiatrist. His medication was promptly restored to the level before it had been stopped - namely, half of the original dosage. The incidents of hitting staff largely ceased. That was more than half a year ago (early 2007).

Lun is small in stature, and when he hits people, staff can usually manage. But striking a driver in a moving vehicle is no trivial matter. The two staff members in the vehicle had to act immediately - one restrained Lun, while the female driver struggled to maintain control and pulled the minibus safely over to the roadside. She then urgently called the manager for assistance.

The manager instructed them to stay calm. After about 15 minutes, with no further incident, everyone returned to the group home. Thankfully, there was no traffic accident and no one was injured.

Reflecting on Lun’s recent behavior, I realized that over the past six months he had often been hitting his own nose. That dissatisfied look in his eyes made my wife and me feel that, as he grew, his emotions and thoughts had become more complex. His personal desires and sense of independence had also strengthened. He was expressing dissatisfaction and releasing emotions through his actions.

At home, he would not dare to behave this way. But in the group home, where everyone is bound by codes of conduct, he may have mistakenly thought that certain staff could be bullied. I felt deeply sorry toward the staff who had been hit and the residents who had been frightened, and I did my best to assist the group home in addressing Lun’s problematic behavior. At the same time, I hoped to ensure that he would continue receiving appropriate care.

I immediately called both the psychiatrist and the community nurse to report the situation and share our thoughts. The doctor was unavailable, so I left a message. The community nurse generally agreed with our analysis. She promised to prioritize Lun’s case and arrange for specialists to meet with the hostel to discuss countermeasures.

Afterward, I met with our family doctor. Upon understanding the situation, he decided to increase Lun’s medication, restoring it to the level before he entered the hostel, until further instructions from the psychiatrist.

Later, I also contacted the supervisor at the crown corporation that provides services for adults with special needs—Community Living BC in Port Coquitlam. He agreed that additional staffing and services were needed. However, as the fiscal year was drawing to a close, the agency lacked funds. New services would have to wait until the next fiscal year.

As parents, we must do our utmost to cooperate, and in doing so we feel at peace. How could we hope that Lun would never stir up trouble? If that were possible, why would he be labeled as a person with special needs and placed in a government-funded residential facility for full-time care?

Postscript:

1. Lun continued to have episodes. The agency made an “exception” and added a full-time male staff member at year’s end to care for him during the day - for five years.

2. Unlike government departments, crown corporations must balance their own budgets each fiscal year and cannot receive additional funding mid-year.