Sympathy or Brass Tacks

as A regional social worker for the Spastics Society I am increasingly aware of the diversity of my clients' needs, their dependence for facilities on specific geographical areas and the way local authorities interpret the statutory provisions. The knowledge that spasticity is irreversible makes an immediate impact. However I try I know I cannot change the status quo and this is the premise on which I have always to build. The deep, caring personal side of giving help and support to the parents, the handicapped themselves and their families, which is the most difficult aspect of my work, paradoxically brings its own reward. Working in parents' homes, in a face-to-face relationship, you have to leave yourself behind and become a receptacle for the pent-up bitterness, unhappiness, fear, horror, shame, physical exhaustion and blind hate which so frequently result from the birth of a handicapped child. To be patient, to care, to be intuitively aware of others' distress is exhausting and draining besides arousing profound feelings of guilt as one