[Urban Cragou]

I’ve done this kind of work before and hated every single minute of looking after people with severe LD (in the most respectful way possible) even if the people I was working with were pretty decent (and they were) so it would have to be mental health. I’d rather get lots of verbal and getting called every name under the sun than nothing at all and having to change soiled pads and doing my best to put them to bed but having to hold them down as gently as possible for 10 minutes because they just don’t want to sleep. You can feed them as on-the-clock as possible, clean and medicate them and try and guide them up to and into bed up to 5 times throughout the night but if they don’t want to go to sleep for you, they’re not going to and they can be quite cheeky in their obstinance over it. So I just haven’t got the patience to look after people with no capacity whatsoever.

A bit of verbal abuse and name-calling is 10 times better than that as far as I’m concerned. At least there you’re dealing with people who can clearly actually talk to you and on a good day are up for telling you interesting stories about their lives and their support preferences.

So yeah. I’m very-much a mental health person. Intensive special needs support would not be my thing. I’m too psychoanalytical and impatient to cope with a stubborn blank slate or give the right kind of support people with low cognitive functioning need.