Taking care of persons with dementia can be mentally and physically exhausting for caregivers.

It would definitely be a relief for the caregiver to receive additional help from others in desperate times.

One man, a caregiver, lost his cool at his elderly mother, who has dementia, in a toilet at Jem shopping mall in Jurong.

Fortunately, several Good Samaritans came together to help him after hearing a commotion from the toilet.

Good samaritans give comfort and help to caregiver and elderly woman with dementia

One Scarlett Chong recounted the incident on Aug. 12 and shared how compassionate passers-by, staff in the mall, as well as the police, helped manage the situation without qualms.

Chong said that the staff from Don Don Donki helped to call for the security team.

A security officer named Mariama held the arms of the elderly woman to calm her down despite having a language barrier.

One David Tan from the building management was able to crack jokes in Hokkien. That helped lighten the mood and the elderly woman was able to calm down because of his assurance.

One staff from local fashion brand Love Bonito, who was identified as Carmen, also took a dress off the rack and offered it to the elderly woman.

The police arrived and heard the son out patiently and helped to link him up with the relevant agencies promptly.

Before accompanying the mother and son out of the mall, one of the police officers paid for the dress after noticing the security tag on it.

Besides these people who Chong managed to get their names from, there were also a number of people who helped to shield the elderly woman, provide a chair and calm the man.

Chong who left herself out of the story also offered the elderly woman a pair of slippers, as revealed by the police officers in the comments section.

The police officers also replied to Chong's post to thank her for the mention but said they were simply doing their job.

In response to Mothership, Carmen from the Love Bonito outlet recalled what happened and shared more about how she felt:

"A passerby that was helping the elderly lady along with the security team at Jem came into our Jem store in a panic and asked for a shawl or towel to dress the naked elderly lady. I passed her the Galen Shirt Dress from the rack to dress the elderly lady."

She also added that she just wanted to help the elderly lady in any little way to help and she hopes the public would be respectful of the elderly woman's rights and privacy by not posting any photos or videos during that chaotic moment.

Carmen also said that what she did aligns with the values that the company believes in.

Incident shed light on caregiver's struggles and kindness in society

Chong also shared in the comments section that the caregiver has anger management issues but is seeing a counsellor.

However, this condition does make it harder for him to take care of his mother.

In response to one comment, Chong also explained the reason for her writing about this incident:

"I want to show episodes of kindness I witnessed, and to put the light on the people I mentioned (hopefully I get their names right), and recognised their parts in this.

To be honest, I am just like any millennial. I had taken videos, pictures, and I had thought of other narratives, those could have been posted instead. But that would just feed the cynicism of people and those might not even be constructive, or true, and perhaps those are what you and some other want to hear.

Kindness does exist if we choose to take a closer look and give credits for, but if we consistently doubt, discredit, that is why people choose not to in case it backfires, what good would still exist among us then?"

Here's her full post: