Community Morns Little London McCabe’s Tragic Death… Quote from this website news report from the Newport News Times…
Blogs highlighted McCabe family struggles
Modified: Wednesday, Nov 5th, 2014
“NEWPORT — In the year leading up to the death of a 6-year-old Newport boy, allegedly thrown from Yaquina Bay Bridge by his own mother, online sites documented a family plagued by hardships, trying to make it by.
Little London McCabe was autistic, and his father, Matt McCabe, in therapy for multiple sclerosis (MS).”
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| Our local community and the world, according to news reports around the globe, are shocked by the tragic loss of a beautiful 6 year old boy (pictured above), London McCabe, who was loved and adored by his family. This especially hit home at Neighbors for Kids in Depoe Bay, Oregon where we take great care and discipline to make a difference for children and families in an effort to prevent this kind of tragedy. We practice vigilance as a high priority and devote additional time to our kids with special needs, including working with parents so that while children are in our care they receive extra love and attention. All the schools and numerous other public and private agencies strive to provide the best support for children and families, who are challenged and stressed each and every day with overwhelming problems with economic survival and special needs, including mental health issues.One of the more recent programs offered to help improve community response to mental health challenges is Mental Health First Aid… Click on the highlighted text and learn more… Following is a quote from this website.
“Mental Health First Aid is an 8-hour course that teaches you how to help someone who is developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis. The training helps you identify, understand, and respond to signs of addictions and mental illnesses.” The McCabe family is a tragic example of what can go wrong, really wrong, if we miss a step in care giving, even for a second. A family tragedy like this can happen in any community anywhere in the world at any moment, even when we all work hard to prevent such a terrible outcome. This is a shocking reminder that we must do more…be more vigilant as an extended community family of educators, care givers, mental health professionals, local government, and volunteers, especially working more closely with parents. There will always be a risk that a tragedy will happen. But when it does, we should talk to ourselves and each other, review and change best practices, and make efforts to prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again. As a community, we know how to do this. We need to do it better! Steve Sparks, Vice Chair, www.neighborsforkids.org |
