Social services and LGO

Hello all, now where to go from there !! how about straight to saying social services are useless when it comes to working with autistics or people with autism...or whatever the correct and preferred format is for someone with the condition !!!!!!

Have any of you had bad experience's with social workers ? Until last October I would have answered no I haven't. BUT only because despite struggling with various parts of life since childhood I'd never sought help from them or anyone before October. However I had been harassed out of my home of 6 years by a malicious very bored neighbour. I was moved by the council to an area I didn't know, and after 2 months in the flat my new neighbour began to realise I was isolated, and he also started to bang and crash, before assaulting me and leaving me unable to return to the flat. It wasn't safe to go back and it never would be because it was a big detached house converted into 2 flats and we shared a door.

I went to go die in a tent and for 6 weeks last summer and my housing association landlord encouraged me to register homeless and refused to help me move to another house. I was lucky that I discovered they were going to celebrate 20 years in business and I told them I would be taking the tent the were charging me rent for to their party. Within 2 hours I had the keys to a new house. I've been here for a year now and apart from my neighbours 12 hour raves every Saturday and Sunday, and his dog barking throughout the day, its okay here. Its a shame that every weekend I experience meltdowns due to the noise though. However I'm not going to complain because it gets me nothing more than an enemy. Instead in October I decided to ask social services to help me with a number of problems that were affecting my well-being. I asked them to help me escape isolation at weekends so my neighbour can do what he wants when he want to do it...and I can avoid 48 hours wearing ear plugs while punching myself. 

I BEGGED for 2 months but nobody from social services came to conduct a care needs assessment. I had to threaten to complain before 2 social workers arrived at my house unannounced expecting to assess me. Luckily for the 1st time in a month I wasn't in. It was lucky I was unavailable because I wouldn't have been able to speak to them. I have always been selectively mute, or at least very selective about who I talk to about what. And their unexpected arrival caused a lot of distress even though I wasn't their to see them. Following the missed visit they offered to meet me the next day or after Christmas. This was equally distressing. I had chose between hurrying through an assessment that I wasn't expecting to happen after 2 months of inaction by the council or spending Christmas alone. I chose to spend Christmas alone. And then rather than sitting through a lot of environmental stimuli over the Christmas period that would have cause me to self harm, I ate boiled eggs in a freezing cold cold field. My decision making isn't the best but at least I didn't meltdown !!!

Before Christmas and the boiled egg dinner the social workers were talking to mental health professionals about my mental health. I'm unsure if they wanted the NHS to drug me and to try therapise the autistic out of me, because it'd somehow mean they didn't have to spend any money, or do anything useful to help. BUT they had lost any trust they had. What they didn't know was that I was also in contact with a psychiatrist with autism knowledge and she wasn't suggesting I seek help for mental health problems. She was suggesting seek help from social workers. Which I was trying very hard to do.

By January 3 months had passed since I first contacted the SS. When the care needs assessment took place I was frustrated and becoming depressed. The social worker that arrived at my house was clueless about autism and the advocate that came with her was funded by the council and therefore wasn't independent. I couldn't get them to listen to what I was saying but they went away and the social worker wrote something I assume was a summary of my care needs. In any case whatever it was it was inaccurate and incomplete. The parts that made most sense were the parts that had been heavily plagiarized from the report written by autism diagnostician. THE BUDGET WAS SMALL.

When I complained the assessment was wrong, all my needs hadn't been identified , and the budget wouldn't meet my eligible needs, the social worker quit on me. I continued to argue well into March that what she had written was incorrect. I'm still unsure what explore the possibility of one to one support actually means but many of the outcomes section makes it clear they think therapy and drugs are the answer to my problems. I find it strange the council want the NHS to deal with me but at the same time they won't do a continuing healthcare assessment. And unless a therapist can end my dislike of tarantulas and aversion to washing up liquid, and then take me into the community, their services are a pointless waste of my time. Whatever I SAID or DID or didn't say, didn't do,  wasn't going to make any difference. Nothing was going to help get a budget that would  meet the needs they had discovered. And the problems they hadn't recognized or considered would also remain unmet.

The replacement social worker that came along after the first one quit on me was told to leave me alone and he did. I didn't realise they would abandon me and my unmet care needs and leave me in isolation for most of the last 3 months. BUT THEY HAVE left me alone to struggle because they didn't want to help me to start with. The LGO took over my complaint in April and a couple of days ago they decided that the council was faultless. I was disappointed by the LGO response. Especially because I had made it clear to the LGO that the entire experience is having considerable impact on my already limited functioning. I was also saddened because I had said to the LGO that I think AUTISTIC PEOPLE TEND TO COMMIT SUICIDE at a grater rate than non autistics. And extreme isolation might be enough to cause a preventable death. I hope thats never the case, but time can seem to last forever when you're alone all day every day.I know its unlikely that a depressed autistic would ring the samaritains but its worth saying anyone in a bad mindset should probably try to reach out to someone for support. Even a stranger online might be more helpful than anticipated.

I am now seeking legal advice because delays aren't my fault. It wasn't me that decided to give up trying...it was the first social worker. It wasn't me that decided to take my plea to please leave me alone literally...that was the replacement social worker. It wasn't me that wrote the care plan that doesn't really amount to anything. I didn't decide the low budget and then decide not to arrange care. All I did was beg for assistance for 2 months because everything was fantastic in my life. Asking for help is difficult and the council have made it more difficult. I've had a blood clot on my leg before and I couldn't move from bed for 4 months. I didn't wash eat or use the toilet properly...but I didn't do what many people would have done...I didn't contact Mrs social worker and say please wipe my bum and attempt to stop me getting depression !!!

If anyone knows of solicitors that deal with community care problems can you please let me know. Hopefully nobody has had any bad experiences with getting some help from social services, but if you have and you've got any advice, it'd be good to hear it.