ActuallyCasual Contributor
Finding safe informed supports
Hi. I am looking for supports and support workers for my son. Most of this involves filling in forms and companies not getting back to me. Or me making calls to service businesses and them either not answering the phone or taking a lot of details and promising to get back to me - and not ever in the 18 months I have been searching.
Through the friend of a friend who knew another support worker, I got a phone number of someone who turned out to have a disability services business, physically based (not just claiming to be) within range of where we live. I had an initial conversation with the business owner and we have an interview scheduled with myself and my son next week.
The problem is that when I told him my son's diagnoses, he continued to blather on about how hard it is to get through to these people and find ways to communicate with them. I responded by saying that as I have the same diagnoses as my son, I find it very difficult to get any comprehensible response out of the majority of people and communicating with them is very difficult because everyday I am trying to connect with people who might as well be from another planet.
I need supports for my son because I want him to have exposure to people other than myself but most people other than myself are highly ignorant of and very inept at communicating with people like myself and my son.
I have made the study of communication with "normal people" my life's work. I can't help that the rest of the population is full of people who do harm to minorities. I have worked in Disability for years and saw every day the harm that self-congratulating staff and professionals do to people with disabilities. I am scared, but with few actual, organised support staff available, am hoping that despite ignorance they can provide my son with the social connection and practice he so badly needs.
