It all happened three years ago at Tom’s work place. Tom was taking care of a particular client (a person with a disability). This client was very stubborn and had his own way how he saw things around him. In his mind he imagined many things and he lived in his imaginative world. During meal he liked to go out in front of the office or to stay alone on a table in the hall, where all other clients ate their meal under the supervision of their support workers or went in Tom’s unit (the “classroom” sort of) to eat there. Much of the time he did not want to eat his meal at the time he had to. When he did not want ta eat his meal, Tom had to go in the kitchen to tell the support worker, that she was always in charge of the kitchen, to put the plate in the warmer so that the client would ate it warmed later on.

On a particular day, the clients did not want to eat the meal and Tom went as always to the kitchen. Tom told Kate, the support worker in charge of the kitchen, to put the plate in the warmer. When he told her that, she looked at him and with anger and arrogance she told him, to do not let the client eat when he wanted, he had to eat it right away when it was ready. She continued saying that she did not want to put the plate in the warmer every time he did not want to eat. She continued by telling Tom to train him to eat immediately. Tom just told her, in a calm manner, ok and he closed the kitchen door. Tom smiled and thought that she had a bad day in the kitchen and released her stress on him and Tom thought too that he could not trained the client to eat when the meal was ready because he was too stubborn and in the past Tom tried and failed. He was like that and nothing could change the disability he had.

The day after, the client as usual did not want to eat the meal and Tom went to the kitchen and told Kate to put the plate in the warmer. She treated him exactly the same way she did the day before. This time too Tom remained calm, but something was going on. Unfortunately for three whole weeks the clients refused to eat his meal at the time he had to eat it and it was always the same story with Kate. Anger was building inside Tom. He went to the office and report the issue to the Head of Centre. Tom told him what had happened and how was treating him and the client. As support workers and as professionals, they could not push a client to do something he refused to do if we could not improve his or her ability more. That was unethical. The Head just told him, if the issue repeats Tom had to inform him immediately. 

Unfortunately two days after the Head was on leave. That day the meal menu was pasta. Tom’s unit was like a flat to promote independence and it was not in the main building. It was about 100 meters away from the main building and Tom had to go for the food and brought it back to the flat. He arrived in the kitchen and Kate prepared Tom’s clients’ food in a big pot of hard metal. She gave him the pot full of pasta and before he left the kitchen she told him with an arrogant and aggressive voice to push the client to eat his meal immediately because she did not want to put it in the warmer, she had too much to do. In reality she never was alone in the kitchen, there were always two support workers supporting her. Therefore she had the time to put the plate in the warmer if the client would not want to eat it right away.

This time anger exploded inside Tom. At that right moment Tom just left the kitchen and went to his unit. His colleague noticed that Tom was not the same person and she tried to talk with him and asked him what he had. Tom told her that he had nothing. Without even reflected, Tom just gave the pasta to the clients, washed the big pot of hard metal, wiped it and went back with it to the kitchen. In the corridor of the main building a colleague saw him and he remembered well that she told him what he had and Tom did not even answered her. At that moment his anger was visible on his body. Tom just open the door of the kitchen, for a moment he reflected a bit and saw that there was not any client in the kitchen, there was only Kate and another support worker. The moment Kate looked at Tom; he was already throwing to her the big metal pot. Fortunately he did not hit her or the other  support worker. Immediately after thrown the pot Tom went outside the building and Kate ran after him, and in a calm way she told him what happened and that made Tom explode more. He begun to shout at her, that he was not going to push the client to eat his meal because she did not want to put the meal in the warmer, it was not an ethical way of dealing with a client. At that moment his colleague at the flat came running and the senior care worker in charge of the centre came too trying to calm him down. It was for nothing, he just continue shouting at her, that she could not gave him orders to push that client to eat when he refused, because that was unethical and for three whole weeks always the same thing, it was not fair for the client. Then she just became like she was the victim and told Tom in front of all, that it was not fair that she was treated like that and that she was going to report the issue to the manager. Tom just told her that he did not care and that she could go and report him. If she had done it, surely the manager would give Tom a written warning because although Tom was right, the fact that he threw the pot was an aggressive and unethical way of dealing with the problem. In fact she never reported and after 30 minutes, when all was calmed she went to the flat and talked a bit and “solved a bit the issue” by means of talking of how she was feeling because the stress of the kitchen work load.