Bit of a ramble following another shutdown...

Yet again I have had another shutdown at work and have been sent home.

I was off work before Christmas due to the shutdowns and started to feel better after a few weeks.  I have only been back at work for just over 3 days and I have had another one.

As a result, I am now worrying about my security in my job and the prospect of finding another job in a similar role.  Since my shutdowns have become worse, the director of my department no longer speaks to me and I have yet to see the follow-up from occupational health.  My boss appears to be supportive, but I am aware I am bringing little value to the company at the moment.

My confidence is currently really low and I am frustrated I can't manage things better.  There seems to be no help and support as I am considered to be very HF and so don't qualify for adjustments, support, guidance etc.

I was wondering if anyone else has been in a similar situation and whether you manage to get the help and support you need?

I am worried about my employment as I have a hefty mortgage to pay with no financial support from family etc.  I can't afford to lose my job as I have been down this route before and ended up being homeless.

Sorry for ramblings and lack of cohesion, my anxiety is very high and I still haven't recovered properly.

Parents
  • Welcome back, we haven't heard from you for sometime.

    And welcome to the club.  I'm also facing homelessness in the near future. 

    I'm getting plenty of jobs interviews but that's it.  Sob

  • Hi Robert123,

    I haven't been on the forums as much as I have been trying to focus on getting well ready for my return to work.  I'm sorry to hear things haven't improved for you.  :-(

    It's not a nice situation to be in and I wish I had a magic wand to make everything wonderful.  If homelessness is a real threat and you don't own or have a mortgage on your home, I would suggest getting in touch with the council to see what emergency accommodation is available - there is normally a waiting list unless you are deemed as being vulnerable, although I would argue everyone is who is facing this type of situation.  If you do own or have a mortgage on your home then it's very difficult as you are not seen as being viable for support unless you are actually homeless.

    It seems such a backward way of working to me, but what do I know.

    I hope something comes through for you soon.

Reply
  • Hi Robert123,

    I haven't been on the forums as much as I have been trying to focus on getting well ready for my return to work.  I'm sorry to hear things haven't improved for you.  :-(

    It's not a nice situation to be in and I wish I had a magic wand to make everything wonderful.  If homelessness is a real threat and you don't own or have a mortgage on your home, I would suggest getting in touch with the council to see what emergency accommodation is available - there is normally a waiting list unless you are deemed as being vulnerable, although I would argue everyone is who is facing this type of situation.  If you do own or have a mortgage on your home then it's very difficult as you are not seen as being viable for support unless you are actually homeless.

    It seems such a backward way of working to me, but what do I know.

    I hope something comes through for you soon.

Children
  • Very kind of you to say such a thing, but I am merely standing on the shoulders of giants.


  • The basic problem here is a huge western cultural fallacy that "everyone busy working as hard as they can" equates to "maximum efficiency".

    It would take the following to fix this:

    1) enlightened individual diverts a % of total budget to deal with important but less urgent cases, so that they are dealt with earlier, whilst they are cheaper to fix. This requires faith that this is the right thing to do IN THE LONG TERM.

    2) spend the rest on fire-fighting as usual

    3) over time, the number of urgent cases should come down, if the % being diverted to a preventative approach is high enough.


    I did have an urge to cover this topic myself, but I tend to go into heinous detail when I do, so I thought best not, and you have rounded and summed it up a total treat, nice one!

    Total bonus factor ten.


  • I totally agree. I’ve said all along, give me an inch and I’ll give you more than a mile, meaning I know I don’t need a lot of help but I need some help but it’s got to be something that will work for me and then I will give so much back in terms of the effort I put into my side of the bargain.  The fact that the wellbeing officer listens to me and admits she knows little about autism, is enormously helpful. And it turns out, she doesn’t need to know everything about autism, damn, I’m still learning, but she is helping me to accept it and take baby steps that are important to me. She said we might make some mistakes and there are things that I won’t find easy, but have to push through. For example, I have a huge avoidance aspect to my autism, and she said there are times when I have to push through this. But she’s not just leaving it there, she’s helping me to come up with plans/routines to help me work out when I need to push myself and when I need to give myself time and space to be me, and process and rest from all the pushing. 

    I have always said, my greatest work as a social worker came from the times I simply listened. 

    It does take just one person, you’re right, but there are other factors and one of them is that we have to take ownership of our needs and know, that we are protected in law and that we have certain rights. These are things offered in a civilised society, they’re not ‘charity’, they are what we need to be our best selves. Disability is not to be pitied, but supported and respected amongst all men. In the UK, we now work from the social model of disability, which changes everything. 

  • I found that too. They didn't do anything big (I'm sure they would also not have a budget for it) but they were the only people that didn't come with their shelf of "solutions" to get annoyed if I didn't think they fitted me at all. Someone put quite some effort into getting me in touch with some real person diagnosed with ASD and I'm grateful for this. I had said many times and to various people before that this would probably be helpful but either they simply ignored this or it was just not what they offered or they couldn't do it because they have to protect their clients. The thing is, I think we both benefited from it when it happened and it didn't even cost anyone much. Guess it just takes one person to get a little enthusiastic about it, but it seems in many places enthusiasm isn't particularly appreciated in people working there and if someone has too much of it it gets ripped out of them.  

  • Oh, I agree completely with your comment DongFeng. I was an independent social worker, working in the local authorities and that’s exactly what it’s like, that’s probably why I was so impressed with the wellbeing team. I got my manager to agree for me to spend half a day with them once a week or with any of the other services, such as occupational therapists, the home care team etc! It’s like all the teams worked independently which is crazy, so I went out there and starting building relationships and more joint working and I really enjoyed going out with the wellbeing officers. Now I’m being supported by them!!! And I couldn’t be more grateful. Under the new care act, everyone is entitled to indecent advocacy, which the local authorities have to make available so that can also be a good starting point when looking for support. I never imagined I’d be getting support from the wellbeing team but there is no specific support (yet) for adults with autism. I say yet, because I intend to change that. 

  • That's wonderful to hear! More power to their elbow. Maybe "wellbeing team" is the magic phrase that Starbuck needs to use with the council?

    My comment above, though written in terms of the services that Starbuck and Robert123 refer to, is a general critique on humanity's depressing tendency towards short-term thinking. Fire-fighting is everywhere these days, it seems. This is an inevitable consequence of letting "bean counters" run things without due regard to the dynamics of complex systems.

  • I’m currently being supported by the local authority wellbeing team. I was working in the service myself when I first heard about this team, who work with people with lesser needs to prevent them from getting worse and needing more services. I was impressed then and I’m impressed now and I’m pleased to say that they are continuing to grow and develop. 

  • I suspect they do realise, but are told to manage with a budget which is smaller than they would like.

    That state of affairs forces them to enact triage, which predictably means they prioritise the most urgent and serious cases... which of course leads to a fire-fighting spiral, and increases the total amount of money required.

    The basic problem here is a huge western cultural fallacy that "everyone busy working as hard as they can" equates to "maximum efficiency".

    It would take the following to fix this:

    1) enlightened individual diverts a % of total budget to deal with important but less urgent cases, so that they are dealt with earlier, whilst they are cheaper to fix. This requires faith that this is the right thing to do IN THE LONG TERM.

    2) spend the rest on fire-fighting as usual

    3) over time, the number of urgent cases should come down, if the % being diverted to a preventative approach is high enough.

    Problem:

    One urgent case does not receive the timely resolution it deserves, because some funds were diverted to preventative measures. The media and politicians latch on to the scandal, and insist that Something Must Be Done.

    People Who Know Best insist that the enlightened individual dedicate all available funds to fire-fighting so that scandals are avoided (humanity in general is too stupid to realise that the very existence of fire fighting is itself a scandal). At least with fire-fighting, People Who Know Best can respond to any criticism by retorting that all funds are allocated to the most deserving cases...(!)

  • It's sad that it has to come to this.  I'm starting to come to the realisation I may need to put a Plan B in place to prepare for the instance that I lose my employment and have to carry on paying all my expenditures. 

    I have always been a believer that prevention is better than cure, but I have found that most things in society are based on fire fighting approaches, where you are only deemed viable after you have failed and come down with a bump.  It would be nice if those who make said decisions on intervention and support realised that the amount of effort and resource required would be much less with earlier intervention, rather than waiting until it's at crisis point.

  • Last time I was in a crisis, the local council were useless.  

    Their publicity material claims that they will help and negotiate to prevent problems becoming out of hand.

    But when it comes down to it. They will only do something when problems have reached a crisis point and not before.