“He'd be scratching us, kicking us, biting us. He would just be attacking us,” Geoff Rogers said, who relinquished his profoundly disabled son Boyd when he was eight.
Now thirteen, Boyd and his family have responded well to Boyd's time in a respite house and he returns home three days a week.
“[He's] still not sleeping over, but [he's] still being a part of the family,” Boyd's mother Pamela said.
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But the tipping point for the Rogers family in deciding when to consider handing Boyd to the state came when the difficulty in caring for him got too much.
Geoff's frustration at Boyd's behaviour, which included being subjected to 260 hits, bites and kicks in one trip to the swimming pool, led to his depression and he resigned from his job
He emotionally recalls lashing out at Boyd.
“I felt like I'd bashed my child,” Geoff said.
Tonight's episode of Insight on SBS ONE hears from a number of families who have been through the hardest decision a parent of a disabled child could ever make.
Anton Enus, who hosts tonight's show for Jenny Brockie, today talked about the challenges making this particularly difficult show.
“I thought I'd put some distance between myself and the subject since the recording, but those emotions just came tumbling back as we talked about the show,” he said.
“Making the decision to give up your child who has a profound disability - can you imagine anything tougher, more complex for a parent?
“I've been in working in television for over a quarter of a century and this certainly qualifies as one of the most special broadcasts.”
"Breaking Point: Families of children with profound disability are reaching breaking point" airs tonight on SBS ONE at 8.30PM.
