One bad apple doesn’t spoil the fruit bowl.

Last topic probably from me. I will tell you a true historic story. We had a part time social worker, Mary, who worked in a forensic team at the Maudsley under a consultant called Paul. Paul had to take early retirement for having a relationship with an outpatient called Pauline from Broadmoor who subsequently changed her name and may have married him. But that’s another story. Done and dusted. He died more recently. 

Anyhow Mary was less than useless at her job. She loved to talk about herself, even to the patients. She was hardly ever there. New age type, was happy to tell us and patients she had joined a demo and burned her council tax bill. Couldn’t see that someone needs to be paid to collect her rubbish, police her neighbourhood and so on.

At some point I realised that what patients told me about their lives, she seemed to be saying these things were happening in her life. Her hair did fall out, or maybe she pulled it out, so she had a very obvious mental health problem herself. 

Mary didn’t like most men, though she needed one to get pregnant. Even that and the baby’s birth seemed to be a fiasco the way she told it. 

Mary left behind a mess. I noticed some reports were total fabrication. She claimed in tribunal reports to have done lots of work to help individual patients that they said she hadn’t. 

Mary has a lot of ideas, but never listened to the patients. Mary was simply unprofessional. So was the consultant. I won’t go on any more, but just need to say one bad consultant doesn’t make them all bad. One bad social worker doesn’t mean none of the rest are any good. 

Autistic people are the same cross section of society. I am autistic. I do not have to get on with another person with autism just because we are both autistic. I cannot tolerate people who don’t know their boundaries. I am autistic. I feel safe knowing mine.

One bad apple cannot ruin my fruit bowl.