Review Of A Bad Support Worker

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I had a bad support worker from the National Autistic Society (NAS) here in the UK.

The support worker from the National Autistic Society engaged in a personal vendetta with me, using all sorts of intimidatory methods. The NAS really dragged their feet, with it taking 9 months to assign a support worker who in terms of his attitude, was someone who clearly doing the job for the glory and liked to be in charge and implied I was a burden. His intimidatory methods included staring at me constantly, which made me repeat sentences 5 or 6 times, his excuse for that being "you learn a lot by watching and making sure people are telling the truth", he asked me who were my role models, he tried to claim a psychological advantage by asking how I would react to certain situations, he deliberately made me angry and said "oh we can build on that" and "you're capable of so much more", he was too intelligent for his own good, but I could see right through him as I am a good judge of character. There's enough bad stories going around through the media about people who look and behave like he does. He told me my Autism was my own fault, how I was in control and allowing the Autism rule me, saying things that would either make me think or would cause an argument, his presence was debilitating, I accidentally broke the doorframe when answering the door to him, he slouched back on the 3 seater couch when sat next to me and put arm around me inappropriately like the way a man would put him around his girlfriend or wife. He was like a cold, clinical psychologist who asked what has alcohol done for you? and how alcohol worked in the past and wouldn't work in the future, unlike other individuals and "different coping strategies". He said that when he deliberately makes people angry and they hit him, he says he would find out what triggered it off rather than putting people in prison on assault charges. He outstayed his welcome, would begin with open questions followed by closed questions before he went home, which freaked me out and got me rattled. He might as well have been a Psychiatrist, Psychologist or Police Officer, his methods were so unorthodox, he even asked me when was the last time I had all-over medical and it was just so evident he was doing the job for himself and said he'd take me to a "quiet place with no-one else around" and his bosses defended his behaviour. My family experienced difficulties when contacting his bosses who gave rude, curt, abrupt responses hence the "What do you want?" and it's disgraceful that a supposedly supportive, caring service for disabled, vulnerable adults is implying they're a burden on them, unlike if someone was contacting a bank on the phone and the Customer Service being excellent.

There are many stories out there about Care Workers abusing their positions of authority and trust and getting away with it, and even the decent ones who do speak out are dismissed from their positions for telling the truth and exposing them.

The attitude of his bosses quite frankly is disgraceful, they're all in this together, this is institutionalised and I felt inclined to make a complaint during the 9 months I waited for them to bother to assign a support worker to visit me throughout most of the year and delaying 1 month to visit me. They take the service users for granted and I've shown great tolerance and restraint in the circumstances, but what I hope to achieve from ever complaining about them is the prevention of this happening to other service users as I have been unfortunate to have had a bad experience with them and the support worker cockily said to me "You can say to us what you like and we will not be offended", which just about sums them up.

I’ve since suffered mentally due to him and this is not something I will ever get over.

I was assigned him, until I complained about him to his bosses who then acknowledged this issue when I emailed them, but my main issue is that the support worker in question who I was assigned has got away with this for 20 years he's been doing the job, and doing it to a lot of other people. Prior to myself, there was another service user in particular that at some stage was backed into a corner and came out with revelations that made this particular support worker jump to conclusions and contacting the authorities/police, which upset the service user and then that service user making his/her own decision to no longer work with the support worker. I feel that his bosses have just let the support worker get away with making a living out of disabled, vulnerable adults, and it disgusts me that this support worker has got away with doing what he did and still is to this day. He abused me mentally, and may as well have abused me physically and left me to live with the damage for the rest of my life, because that's how it feels and will continue to affect me going into the early 2030s and maybe beyond. I think his bosses are equally to blame for letting this go - They're all in it together as far as i'm concerned in an institutionalised way.

That guy seems like a real tool. Have you gotten rid of him yet? You should.

Oh yes, I got rid of him alright after 6 months during 2014-2015 and complained to his bosses who then assigned me a better support worker. I was just merely pointing out about that bad first support worker. Regarding my original post, I thought about complaining to the head office with the above about that particular first support worker and his bosses regarding that particular branch in the country. He was a horrible man, there was just something not right about him, his face didn't fit.

There are people who gravitate toward autistics - I've run across a number of them in my lifetime. It's like they can sense areas of vulnerability and seek to take advantage of them. When you're pretending to be normal and honor social boundaries and try not to hurt others' feelings, it seems to open up a window for such people to move in and take advantage. I have a very hard time being assertive because I have a hard time reading people and their intentions. I tend to take people at face value and to act in a positive, open way with them by default - especially professionals who are supposed to be helping me, like the stinker social worker you describe. I tend to be gullible in those situations. Some people will take advantage of that. I'm sorry to hear about what the support worker did.