The carer made me go mad.

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I live in supported housing in Greater London, UK. It is primarily a mental health supported housing system but I am also here due to my autism as well as mental health. It is basically for me to learn independence etc.

However the carer is diabolical. He visited today and started yelling at E (another person living here) for several minutes for "breaking" an already broken broom. I have sensory issues and am an abuse survivor, so I am very sensitive to shouting. I became very agitated and started screaming, then I ran up into my bedroom, slammed the door and locked it. I was sat in my room, shaking, rocking and crying for over 20 minutes. Then I tried to explain to the carer while in tears, that I cannot cope with raised voices. He said "I don't care" and walked out of the house.

I was shaking, rocking and crying in my bedroom for over half an hour and went nonverbal. I still cannot speak.

Because of my autism I cannot control my body when I get very agitated; I have hurt people and even had the police deal with me during past periods of agitation. The carer knows I am autistic but he doesn't understand.

E said she is going to ask to move out.

I don't know what to do except tell my care coordinator from my mental health team tomorrow.

I am considering to ask to move out but that would take possibly months due to lack of council housing.

Talking to your care coordinator from the mental health team sounds like a good plan. Does you care coordinator work for the same agency that oversees the supported housing? If not, try to talk to the supported housing overseers as well, and if you can, encourage E to talk to them to.

After talking to those people, before you try to move out, I would suggest waiting a while to see if your problems with the carer are fixed. That way, if the problems get fixed, you won't have to change your living situation for no reason.

Thanks. My care coordinator doesn't work for the same agency: she works for the NHS whereas the carer is under the council, but they have links so my care coordinator has the authority to contact the (council) housing officer about any complaints.

E is going to contact them too I think.

That is a good idea to wait for the problems to be fixed. I think the carer needs training in autism.

Sounds like they need training in how to treat people in general....yelling at people with mental health issues and or autism is probably not a good idea especially in a place like that.

Yelling at anyone isn't very nice full stop. Whatever happened to courtesy?

The mentally ill deserve manners as much as everyone else. SteelMaiden, speak to your care coordinator, or else this "carer" will just be mean to someone else.

I can't stand people being unnecessarily mean to others.

Thank you both.

You're right, he shouldn't shout at people with mental health problems and/or autism. I will report it later on today (it's 5am now and I can't sleep).

He has always been blaming us for everything. Once the fire alarm went off at night for no reason and I had a massive panic attack. He came around, switched it off, and then shouted at me for spraying deodorant on the fire alarm and hence setting it off! Firstly that is not true; why would I set off an alarm that makes me freak out, and secondly I don't even own deodorant!

Rant over.

I don't even......

How the hell do these people get a job o_o

( Of course, I'm referring to the yelling person here. )

It's probably a government job. Plenty of indifferent people work in government. Sadly, plenty of uncaring people also work in health care, private or public. Even worse, many normally caring people become immune to the fact that the people they are dealing with are indeed human. Thus, they treat them with contempt, as things that are annoying to them and adding hassle to their day.

Yes, unfortunately he does work in this sector.

I used to live in 24 hour supported housing and the carer would get drunk off vodka every night and we all had to deal with it.

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Good news though: my mental health care coordinator said that she's going to put me forward for moving out of here into council housing, with a support worker visiting me a couple of times a week to make sure I'm ok. I really am happy about that, I would love to move out of here and get more independence.

Due to stress, I have gone non-verbal.