Support workers.

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Does anyone else have a support worker?

I have two. I have one from my mental health team who takes me out once a week (I have difficulty in going out to shopping areas, High Streets etc) and we go to a cafe and do some shopping too. I also have a full-time support worker at university who stays with me for the whole time I'm there; I have her due to severe anxiety, selective mutism, sensory issues and as a person to assist me in activities.

Do you find your support worker helpful? Mine are both very good.

Hey,

I'll be getting one, hopefully very soon. I'm excited because I've been isolating myself a lot and feel like this would help me participate much more in university life. I know it's ironic as I actually work as a support worker. However, I work with those who have a lot more difficulty communicating and/or those who have trouble with some of the most basic daily living skills. I mostly need help navigating the complex social nuances of the university campus; the people I work with will most likely never be able to go to university to begin with due to intellectual disability.

I'm just wondering, though, does your worker accompany you to classes as well as going everywhere with you on campus?

I just have trouble imagining having a support worker for class, because even in tutorial, the majority of the time is spent listening to other people speak, so a lot of it would be the worker just sitting there and listening to your class material.

I now have a support worker from the local autistic society. I have only met her once and I'm not sure how it will work in the long run, but she seemed nice. I can only afford to pay for one hour a week (using my DLA). Currently we are doing two hours together every two weeks as more can probably done or talked about with a longer period of time.

My support worker is from the National Autistic Society. She comes with me to all my lectures, tutorials and practicals. This is because I often get severe anxiety in them, and she is also there in case something sets off a meltdown in me, like the fire alarm going off, or someone encroaching on me.

I get DLA, income support and housing benefit. But for university I get Disabled Students Allowance, which covers the cost of my support worker at university. My mental health team support worker is under the NHS.

I've been told I should seriously consider getting one, but I don't think I could tolerate another person in this household. Especially being in my very tiny bedroom that is the only space that belongs to me and me alone. If I am able to move out as I hope, I will look into the possibility.

My support workers rarely come to my house. Most of the stuff we do is outside.

But living in supported housing is hell. I'm trying my hardest to push for me moving out into a flat of my own.

That would be a huge help for me, I think. Probably for my mother, too, as she is one of my primary sources of transportation.



I think autistic people tend to do so much better with spaces of our own and times we can count on to be free of other people.

I meet my support worker at the local autistic society offices for the time being. But we will probably move to meeting elsewhere once I am more comfortable with it. The offer was made to meet at my house but I *really* didn't want that!

I do not have a support worker, but tomorrow I have an intake into a day care center for adults with autism.
I do not know what they will provide me.
I also do have anxiety, selective mutism and sensory issues, but I guess that they know how to deal with it.
But I do feel anxiety for the intake tomorrow, because I am mute meeting people I do not know and surroundings I do not know, but my psychologist will go there with me, that I do not have to do the talking as she knows I get mute in foreign surroundings.
I am glad you have very good support workers.

Thanks.

The National Autistic Society and my mental health team have both been very good for me.

I would recommend a support worker to anyone here who has trouble going out and doing things.

I was told i dont need one. so ive been coping ever since. oh, i am not quite elligible for a befriender never mind the fact that the waiting list was long didn't seem to matter. i once went to a group for disabled and autistic people and it was like an awkward experience. for one thing some of the carers gave me a few looks and tried to suggest that i was like them and then couldn't get that to the point is that I may be AS. so, not everyone is aware of the findings or national statisitcs and trying to have an autistic society based on some of these are like trying to pull the wool over everyones eyes and try to tell them they're allright. when really, what we all need and could benefit from is some support and experience. all the response i get is oh, shes a ret*d like trying to calculate that i may be hiding something when a secondary more acute guess would be mixed autism in their view.
I have both stubborn and spiritual traits, i like to muse over matters i think are important and that few people are likely to miss again, i hate the repetitiveness of a wellfare system that borders on the defense and resent the facts that we are leaving behind a counrty that has happened to be the primary focus of generations to come and are looking back on the world with sorry eyes that welcome no such new agenda to the open possibilities that even an aldi could not create in a pit or a sandstorm epidemic.
Given rise to the fact that their are many reasons that have cohabited the natural ongoing crisis of our soft-heartedness and provisions we are more prone to a miniature heatwave scandal than we are over a future deficit.
the light of the topic casts its imaginary spell over all dellusional epidurals and circumstances that demean the process of collective renewal in our national interests and campaign for a tidier cause. not one that has the capacity to reverse an entire popualtion to its kness and scream theres a ripper in our midst. the bias comments ive encountered are usually from strangers who have not got a clue what they are looking into or scream loudly about decisions that will be lost out to them under our current new regime.
we are broke and others are resulting to sadism to win a further lockdown party on the waves of destruction that impends before us.
we will all soon succumb to the same deep impact that has baffled meteorologists for thousands of years if we're not carefull.

I have a support worker; but it's clear she doesn't understand.

well im sorry if ive damaged your own sense of visual structure in this topic but the truth sticks out of all proportion and its no wonder given the late rise of unemployment and migration figures plummeting through the roof. if you were from the u.k people think you're from outter space.

eh?

I think I understand her point... there's no need to have support workers as an autism-only service which is based on certain criteria that people need to fulfill in order to get one. The waiting lists that these agencies experience prove the point that the services are necessary and should be administed on a larger scale, beyond the disability model. Success does not define anything; even ability to pass does not define anything when it means that beneath the surface, you are suffering from anxiety and exhaustion. I think many people who know me would consider me to be "successful", although it seems that it's hard for others to acknowledge the fact that nobody can become successful in a social vacuum. We all need some sort of support, and having a support worker just happens to be a type of support that is medicalized in our society. I've met some people who seem to think that I have enough mental capacity to "learn the skills" to pass and therefore not need this type of support. While it's true that I may not need too much of it because I am very good at telling people what I need, there are often situations I put myself into, often by my own choice, where I know for a fact that just having this ability and insight would not be enough. Also, using cost-benefit analysis, I think it's a lot better to pay for a worker to help me navigate some situations instead of having to independently face situations that are too overwhelming for me and strain my mind to get through them at the expense of the energy that it would take to deny the inherent ways that I feel and process the world. So people really have no right to say that I don't need someone to help me in certain situations just because I have been able to meet what is considered to be "successful" in our society (with a lot of this coming from behind-the-scenes help from others).

@Wandering_Stranger: Can you find another worker? Maybe you could think about what exactly you would want in a worker and then seek out someone based on those criteria.

I don't think we can change social workers. One of the first things she told me (I'm not sure how she knows this) is that I won't get a higher benefit award and that I have no problems with my speech. Yet, most people do not understand me when I talk.