Want more independence, but afraid

The staff at DWP aren't clever enough......

What NAS could usefully do, or some other organisation, is contact the Sector Skills Councils. These are bodies (if they have survived the recent cuts) that set standards for education and training and recruitment in their fields. For example cleaning, along with estate management and housing, come under Asset Skills. Others cover health workers, caterers, construction industry, building maintenance, transport etc.

These bodies set up skills frameworks and points systems for different qualifications. They are supposed to include disability, though I cannot say they always do. I worked with three Sector Skills Councils on foundation degrees and 14 to 19 diploma, but always did have a struggle getting across the disability considerations.

But NAS could usefully approach the Sector Skills Councils about increasing employment opportunities for people omn the autistic spectrum. They would have to respond, and would be better placed than approaching individual FE colleges or individual employers. There is, or used to be a Sector Skills Councils website with all the different councils and contact details listed.

Certainly more chance than with DWP, Job Centre Plus or any of the other joke organisations supposed to be finding people work - they are appallingly bad, substandard, wasteful and counter-productive, but no government seems to have the courage to sort them out. And there are people who work in those organisations, serving the public, who've no right to sleep nights, the shameful way they treat people.

I think I detect a fellow socialist openheart!

quote Longman "Perhaps NAS could set up something on their website to explore job types suited to people on the spectrum."

Great idea !

The DWP should also have a specialist job section for people with conditions, autism and the like. With employers or specialist employers, even getting grants from the government, so it pays them to employ people who have special needs in some way. In lieu of competing with the rat pack with there "loki seed"(loki is the trickster) Nt advantage.

What I found is the reality of government policy is the opposite of what is simply needed, they will give millions of pounds to ATOS organisations and organisation alike(even the NAS), whilst talking in caring tongues to the forum(voters), but it just money to the boys, a public purse to friends in high places. Maybe,  if the vulnerable people including the elderly in society were allowed 1000 votes each, society may pay more attention to vulnerable people, until then it is still survival of the fittest and corruptest. So unless your a fully fit and fighting,, you are a casualty of capitalism, because the weak have no voice and the ones who advocate speaking for them through data collecting are just connected friends of the capitalism system, so will speak out so far when it only suits policy agenda but mostly shut up, due to being bought with hush money contributions.

There are jobs around that get you away from having to socially integrate, although I wasn't able to avoid the latter - I've always struggled with the fitting in at work thing.

But some parts of jobs appeal: filing, or re-reganising, and structuring documents or data usually scare people off so it is something I could get to do on my own, no botherers coming near.

I've a great respect for cleaners - where would we be without them, but it is astonishing how much social stigma seems to attach to this vocation. Cleaning is an occupation where you could find absorbing work with minimum contact with others. And there is so much more to it than just "mrs mop" - the technology involved can be quite substantial. Janitoral services and building maintenance are also becoming more respectable, and waste operatives have much more varied prospects than just emptying bins.

Then there's many jobs related to the construction industry, building maintenance, transport, catering, health care.....

What stops many people doing these jobs is family committments - they therefore attract single people who are ok with isolation. Also they are jobs where you can be set a task and left to get on with it.

Perhaps NAS could set up something on their website to explore job types suited to people on the spectrum.

Hope have you considered you may be going through regression ?

quote  " Jung had earlier argued that 'the patient's regressive tendency...is not just a relapse into infantilism, but an attempt to get at something necessary...the universal feeling of childhood innocence, the sense of security, of protection, of reciprocated love, of trust'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regression_(psychology)

So there may be conflict between the adult side off you and the child regressive side, basically you have two sets of needs and are trapped between both planes.

Maybe if you were in a loving relationship, both could be met, work and play.

Hi Hope,

I think I'm in a similar situation. Late last year I had what I now call my "final breakdown". I've had loads and picked myself up and muddled through but this time I could not see a way through so asked my GP to sign me off if only to give myself a bit of space and time to "sort myself out". I asked for a couple of weeks off yet was offered a year - I opted for six months. ATOS have recently placed me in the support group which gives me some leeway. The permitted work rule has been a great help for me as like you, I have a work ethic. Also I am self employed which has added complications but this has helped me to keep most of my clients.

I agree that the negatives often outweigh the positives. I would really love to go back to muddling through because it is what is familiar. I am aware that Aspergers gives me so many positive qualities. Your comment about freedom from fear touched a nerve. I get scared too and fear is disabling. And hey, what's normality?!!