I work as a support worker for adults with learning disability some with mental health issues, mostly ambient exception of two none vocal service user's.
I wondered how many other aspies do this kind of work and how common is it to find ourselves in this job. How do you find it?
I was told by a pychiatrist that I could not possibily have a pervasive development disorder (her term that she used, which show's her ignorance - I do not like that term) because all my service user's would hate me if I did. They definetly do not hate me, the reverse is true. I have empathy on a different level to NT. I treat the guys like individuals. True I have has some issues (mmm like one of my guys moaning continuosly that I am not listening to him and that I am deaf - he says I need hearing aids!!!!! ) I work with a deaf service user, though I have a good ability to learn lots of signs by rote, its rather one sided I have enourmous difficulty understanding her signs. We have adapted. I can often rely on colleagues with an issue I am uncomfortable with not often though. I love my job and I never thought I be able to do this but I do, this is what I do end off.
I am not very encouraged to become something like a psychiatrist, as my parents and possibly also teachers don't think I would be able to understand and comfort the patients. Caregiving sounds interesting, learning about "big Aspergians" as Meiloyn would call them, I think I have pretty much no idea of what LFA is currently.
I don't do this type of work. I did some informal elder care. I can only effectively work with someone who is very verbally able to express their wishes and also would not try to manipulate me. Plus I need other support, see example below.
I remember one old lady getting me to buy her ice cream and candles when she was told that she could not have them. I just did what she told me and then her friends would come over and throw out the ice cream and the candles. She told me that she would not light the candles when she was home alone. She had candle holders everywhere and said they looked stupid empty.
Try volunteer work. I am better at my job than a lot of my NT colleagues because I have degree's of empathy that you can only get if you been through some of this stuff yourself. Not one told me I would not be able to do this and I can. I am big for person centred care and treat my service user's as individuals with right - my whole team does that to a certain extent. So if your service user wanted a cake, why did she have to manipulate you? How would you feel? Now lets assume your service user has a dietary problem. This is what I have learnt, you give informed choice and meet the person in the middle. I would say the person who threw it away was more abusive than you for buying it. Now lets say you had a service user with a nut allergy and they manipulated you into giving them nuts and they died, then that would a neglect on your part. However you are not incapable of learning that that person had a nut allergy and what that meant. Whether you could deal with saying no you cannot have nuts because..... Well when I started my job I would have had trouble with that. I have worked with the same service user's for almost 3 years. I have done lots of training, had lots of advice from colleagues but most importantly I know my service user's. When there have been situations I could not handle, I have asked colleagues for help. I ask so many questions!!!! Never live up to your label! There are many things I have avoided long before I knew, many I tried and failed but tried again.... I avoided doing this work for a long time, its the family business with women! My mum was a midwife and nurse in a old people's home. Yep she was better at theory than practice but that my mum. My mum used to say I will get you a job working in homes wiping sxxty arses I took that literally and avoided it. I never wanted to do personal care and that why I avoided the job. I will never work in a high dependency unit, but I am adapting to the increase in person care we are slowly getting and it does not bother me. I do however avoid moving and handling because I know I cannot do that it would be too much of a risk (by that I mean using hoists etc severe needs). I have know this since I started everytime I have been on a moving and handling course (its not specific to our dept our handling is pushing a wheel chair, helping service user's up correctly if they have a fall and carrying shopping etc) I was baffled by the hoists and a lot of the techniques. Try volunteer work! Lets say for example you have an interest in old black and white movies the old folks will love that etc. Read Tony Attwood book Asperger's and girl's a girl diagnosed talks about how amazing it was doing some volunteer work in an elderly home.
Although I had no job offer in either the service or the science side of behavioral science, I had considerably more failed interviews in human services, starting right after college. The B.S. in sociology is not generally relevant to research work (the Master's is), but it is fine and dandy to make a few dollars an hour with other people, there but for the grace of God.
It is possible that many who work with "clients" think there are "clients" and then there are "managers", and if one is like one of the clients, he or she can't be a service worker.
One Frederick MD (40 miles/65 km north of Washington DC) agency asked me mental health questions in a 1993 interview.
I did not get along too well at the Maryland Rehabilitation Center (Baltimore, MD, north of the city near the 695 Beltway) with one MSW. I was almost three years out of grad school. I was in the Community Living Skills Training program. I got the same classes the others did. Classes in arithmetic when I could have taught them the F-distribution analysis of variance (kind of like TNT versus the hydrogen bomb). (My Master's written exam had a detailed question about the detailed theory behind the analysis of variance, and I had had a matrix algebra class dedicated to the same.) Martin Luther King Day (Jan 15) I had the teacher's lesson plan figured before she gave it.
CLST even bothered to teach me how to use a washer and dryer, cook, clean house, ride public transit and shop. But they were a little too late, I was already doing that almost a year earlier living in Greenbelt (10 or so miles north of NE Washington) as a Census Bureau employee.
I saw no driving lessons. Maybe for some. But I wouldn't have needed any. I had the license at 21, I had some motor coordination issues at 16 in driver's ed, Dad was finally convinced to let me have the plastic, but only when I was 26 and Dad was very recently deceased, it became a no-brainer that someone had to drive into town for the groceries (and Dad had been driving so long by himself that Mom had become rusty). Control freak? Possible Aspie.
Using Mom's car made the trip between her place in WV and Baltimore much easier. I was so skilled at public transit though I rode the MARC rail (generally for commuters) from Martinsburg to Washington and switched to the line to Baltimore.
CLST did teach me something new, ironing. After a year of ironing my own wear, I discovered Dry Clean Depot ($1.75, in by 9 out by 5).
I didn't need the long list of self-care classes and chores the other adults had. I was taking college level courses downstairs in computer programming, 22 hours in all in six months, one course at a time, two hours of homework for every class hour.....
What was the difference between the lead MSW and I on the floor?
Essentially I have Asperger and she doesn't.
My sociology/my Master's: dedicated primarily to research design and statistics, including university employment
Her sociology/her Master's: does have some research and stats (in undergraduate the BSWs got the same methods class we did) but the emphasis is considerably on application and practices.
Let me say it one more time. There but for the grace of God, go you or I.
I have 'ended up' as a support worker for adults with learning difficulties - I have a friend who thinks I do it as a challange, because I'm proud of how much I've learnt about people and how and why they behave the way they do. In fact, the people I support are unlike most people anyway - I do it partly because I have a strong sense of social justice and want to support people who wouldn't do so well without support; partly because I have a well developed sense of tolerance and don't expect anyone to behave in a way I'll understand, so find it easy to accept the behaviours of the people I work with; partly because I'm relatively unqualified and have a very patchy work history, so found it hard to find work in other fields; partly because it's less like working and more like 'being' and partly because I wouldn't last 5 minutes in more competitive work environments.
Jiggeryque you have just said the whole reason a do that job in words I could not use. Hell it just like being at home, it like being at home-home (it seem's my mum, dad and sister are also on the spectrum).
It is like being, in fact I look after myself better at work by default, for example I eat rubbish at home but have to ensure the guys have a good healthy balanced meal as I eat with them I do to. I find I communicate in way that natural to me and work's well with the guys.
Still I am off work and preparing to have the in's and out of my sickness/disability scrutinised by manager's, not sure what to expect will not be suprised if it how can you do this if.... how about a behind the scenes office job...oh hell no, I hate 9-5, I lose it stuck in an office, not got the freedom to be.... then that said I being investigated for absent seizures plenty of health and safety risks. If I lose this job I will lose it because I love it, it's all I know and want to do.
I also had a patchy work history (various retail, temp and security jobs) found this easy to get (pay low status low). That said my old manager later admitted she was unsure about giving me the job but the CEO said she should (he never met me!).
I have a strong sense of justice too! I am big on person centred care, independence, understanding, acceptance, human rights and person first diagnosis second.
I learnt a lot about myself in this job before I realised I was on the spectrum and eventually getting diagnosed.
Have a work meeting next friday and I am very nervous, there will be my line manager, housing manager, personnel officer and my advocate, too much. The letter says to discuss my sickness absenses and future employment. Makes it sound like I am up for the firing squad and not a meeting to discuss how they can help me.
Yes, I eat rubbish at home but have good, well-balanced meals on duty
I am allowed to smoke at work too, ad lib (provided I stand outside) but end up smoking less there than I do at home. On the down side, I watch more rubbish TV at work than I do at home...
Lol I also watch more TV at work, but its good that actually chill and watch TV concentratingish...rather than mindlessly glued to my PC (new obessession ebay!).
They banned smoking at work here full stop, not that stops me, just cuts me down something cronic, at home I chain smoke. I won't smoke inside my new flat though, see how long that lasts.
Again, the similarities - I usually have the TV on at home, but as you say, I'm not actually watching, I'm hardwired to my PC (though not so much to Ebay - they don't pay me enough to play there...)
The people we support are adults, so can make their own choices about smoking (and drinking) - none of them smoke, but it does mean the company can hardly ban smoking outright. When I got my new flat, I managed to hold to my decision not to smoke in the bedroom (it means the first thing I do in the morning is no longer to grope blindly for nicotine - but it only delays me a couple of minutes). I mostly don't smoke in the kitchen, too, but come the smoking ban in July, my flat's likely to be the only place left I can sit and smoke in comfort.
Lol I just got my own flat. I smoke on the balcony, when friends come round or I smoking weed I smoke in the living room. I put so much hard work into the decorating that I don't want to ruin it. I used to have my bed by the window in my bedsit, I wake up roll a fag and stick me head out. The guys are allowed to smoke outside at work, as it their home, they want to try ban that (there is one smoker and put it this way, it ain't ever gonna happen).
Back on topic. I have a work meeting tomorrow with my manager, big manager, personnel and my advocate. Its to discuss my sickness and future employment (as they [put in the letter) in light of my work statement about my dianosis and my doctor report. They were going to send me to Occupational health but my manager says they are not now, because they have enough information to make a decision.
I smell a big fat rat, my manager sounded cagey on the phone (usually she is reasuring, this time it was like she was holding back) my work colleagues have cut contact. I am nervous.
Await my rant when I get home tomorrow.
The work meeting was a waste of my time. My personel officer was rude. My manager did not get a opportunity to say anything.
They quized everything on my work statement, asking if everything was true, criticised my doctor report. Nothing about what support they could offer me.
Played a lot of enthise on my poor coordination and poor hand to eye contact. My work statement says I would be unlikely to do high need's care ie it would be unsafe for me to use hoists (not part of my role as my service user's are able).
Lots of talk about them talking with their laywer's about this, seemed reluctant about referring me to occupational health.
It annoyed me, stressed me and I am going to doctor to state this and get a sick note. I am off to have some fun and enjoy download festival. I look for a new job when I get back.