Don't know what to call this.

[chris54]

I would just like to relate something that happened at work.

I work as a night support worker in a small residential home for adult, the majority are diagnosed with ASD. The other night one of the residents was a bit upset, I had just come on shift being told he was in his room and to keep an eye on him. I was just going up to see him when he come out his room stomped across the landing, shouted a string of swear words, throw his slippers across the landing, this was all withing a few feed of me, while the other carer on the floor below was shouting at him to stop, (Not a lot of help), I just stood there calmly, ( as calmly as you can when you have a 40something year old,15 stone, person with the mental capacity of a toddler, letting rip), talking to him and he soon quietened down and said he had a headache, which I interpret to mean (with him this is) more a feeling of tension. I had a few quiet word and that was it for the night.

 

Anyway, the point of writing this is the interpretation of event put on it by the staff, me and the other carer on duty.

In me report I put that he came out of his room, shouted some wear words, throw his slippers across the landing, quickly quietened down and went back to his room.

The other carer put that he shouted abuse AT the staff and throw thing AT staff.

Not my interpretation of what happened, and giving a completely different impression of what happened.

 

Now this report goes on his records for all time.

 

An outburst like this is something we have all had at some time I'm sure.

[justine1]

There is nothing you can really do about what the other carer wrote,though I have not worked with ASD peoplo I worked in home for elderly some with Dementia and other mental health so have encountered this,and it does happen that people report things differently.If you were the carer who calmed him down this should be made clear then your own statement would have more weight,ie.where I worked certain carers responsible for certain residents.Also were you told at handover what happened that made this person so upset,you mentioned a headache prehaps he was in pain and nobody acknowledged this which is what upset him,you should make note of this to.Prehaps explain to management,that you did not see his behaviour in the same way the other carer did,I have heard cases where if these reports are made the resident may be moved around constantly because they seen as "troublesome"I dont think this will help the situation.Good job on remaining calm its not easy!

[Sally44]

This is a hard one.

I am sure that many 'NT' people believe that specific behaviour or words are 'directed at them'. When on many occasions, especially if someone has an ASD, that may not be the case at all. The outburst may or maynot be because of something someone has said and done. But their reaction may not be directed at that person at all although it may happen in their vicinity. That surely is part of their difficulties. If my own son could 'respond' to the appropriate person appropriately at the appropriate time, then many of his difficulties might be dealt with. But his speech or actions can often be directed at no-one at all and this is an area we have had to work on. His reactions can also be totally unrelated to the real time of events. So he can become upset about something minutes, hours, days or weeks before when a memory is triggered or when he has processed information.

In contrast he can also attribute certain outcomes to people or events when they are not related at all. So there can be other times when he is definately angry with someone about something that happened and he believes that the negative outcome he had was as a direct result of them. When it had nothing to do with them at all.

I don't know how you address this, other than being as aware as possible of how that particular person is affected and each occasions may be totally different.

As you say, it is down on this person's records. It might be worth just bringing up the whole subject area with your superiors, without mentioning any names, just to see what their opinion is.

[Kathryn]

It's amazing how two people can have completely different interpretations of the same event. If you were closer, you're likely to be in a better position to see what happened, but unless there are other witnesses, you probably can't do much to change what's on record.

 

Frustrating, I'm sure.

 

K x

[Tally]

It's sad that this will be on his record that he was abusive and threatening, when he was just cross.

 

It seems that anyone with mental health or learning disability issues is an easy target for this kind of thing, and have no voice if they try to appeal it either.

[mc31]

Its not good to be in a situation like this, at the end of the day (when i worked as a carer in learning dis and mental health adults) even shouting at a client was deemed a form of abuse, either way someone in an already heightened state is certainly not going to calm with a person who is going to shout, well done you for sorting a situation that could have got out of hand.

mc

[sesley]

do you know what the trigger was. my 9 year old shouts and throws things and kicks things and people if in the firing line,out of a frustration which becomes anger, from something that happened.

[chris54]

shouting at a client was deemed a form of abuse,

Don't get me wrong, the shouting was to be heard from the flour below not shouting at him.

 

Its that some of the staff don't get that communicating 1-2-1 is often best or the person just gets confused, too many people all talking at once.

 

This report will be lost under the mountain of other reports on this chap. Hardly a day goes by without something happening that requires a report doing on him. The underlying problem is that he is unable to fully accept that this is now his home and that he is no longer able to live with his Mum and Dad, who phone him most days but that just makes him upset.

He will say to me most evenings before he goes to bed, "I'm sleeping here tonight".

 

 

Working there just makes me more determined to give my son the skills, if that's the right word, to be able to live independently when older.

Edited October 18, 2009 by chris54

[sesley]

i think we all want that, different circumstances,different people with different abilites. I filled a questionaire for a hapi scheme we used in the summer all i could say yes and to finish,my son enjoyed himself,we felt the expereince of mixing and having fun withouts would help him to be able to funtion more independantly,he needs to learn how to be social hard as it is and how to do things for himself.I think we are lucky for a little ones in that they know so much more and can help support are young ones more from others experiences.Its sad on the adults that there is so little understanding of the difficulites they are having.