What are 'personal assistants' like?

I've gotten help from a man involved with an advocacy company to do with people who have disabilities, and he told me if I cannot gain flexible hours from support agencies, that I should look into hiring or employing a personal helper, or helpers.

Basically, I'd be like a "boss" and pay them to ferry me around and do things with me, since I have anxiety issues and not all NHS based caregivers can work flexible hours.

For example, if an agency only gave you support with males only from 1 to 4 PM and they could not switch the hours around to better suit me, like if I needed to attend a certain event at a time outwith those hours and badly required help, then they're not ideally going to suit what you require them for. So this is where this idea came in.

However, does anybody know much about them? It's a new one on me, really.

Hi Peter. We call them aides here in our state. Medicare pays for them and they do things for you that you cannot do. They shop for you, shower, bathe, drive you places, cook, do errands, laundry, housecleaning. And about two days a week and that is great. Many elderly people use them to help keep them independently living. hope that helps, tc

Be careful to check references as with any employee who will have access to you or your home.

We recently had an "approved professional" electrician sent in by our landlord to add extra ground fault outlets and he stole several items from the house. We complained about the criminals (he denied it but his assistant admitted it) and they were fired. Thieves think it is unfair to be fired from their jobs for the behavior of stealing. He actually expects unemployment benefits for being fired for stealing on the job... really? yes really! *gasps with disbelief*

So be extra careful around anyone new is my advice.

I meant to say that social services arrange support, so it's not actually the NHS at all. They deal in healthcare.

My social worker is in cahoots with my supervisor and it is unfortunate, but unless you can pay for private care personnel, one would be stuck with whatever "scraps" the government chucks down at your feet. In other words, if you gain support via a social worker, this person will likely be aware of your legal issues, and hence the "new" support will never run as smoothly as you would want it to. You would have to always be careful regarding your comments and actions. Who needs that?

I could hire personal assistants. But then it could be largely the same thing. Once my supervisor finds out they are on the scene, he will begin to beat around the bush.

Basically, all these agencies 'hold hands with each other' and this jerk being a legalized thorn in my side is just going to compound things. His universal Internet ban with my rights to use the online services revoked means I could only have supervised Internet use instead. That means he would act fishy and the care workers may end up being his personal goon squad, updating him about my affairs. This is already the case, so I quit my latest support agency to be on the safer side.

If I had to wait out the CPO before finding new helpers, that is another 7 crappy months away. Sadly, things are always going to be awkward with that jackass around. I'm never divulging my business to him again, especially after he overreacted over my dentist, who is female.

Never let your tongue run away with you either. These supervision officers watch you like a hawk and expect you to abide by everything they command.

Your problem doesn't seem to be your tongue, it seems to be you obsess and stalk/harass females you come in contact with. That's a dangerous problem and I've wondered if, other than keeping female staff away from you, you are under any court-ordered therapy program for your issues with women.

Um, I do not have an order about any contact with women, other than a few who were from Autism Initiatives. You obviously don't know about my previous problems.

They cannot provide female care workers with support outlets in case inappropriate feelings develop. This was a problem before and the matter got out of hand - just because.

Actually - I don't want to go into the story again as it is a highly confusing mess. Simply put, caregivers cannot be trusted. They are in it for the money and at the end of the day, they are just people too, and some are fine, and others not.

It is hard to want to trust them now. It would take way too long to explain the pros and cons here.

"in case inappropriate feelings develop" which means it's always a danger when the caregiver is female, correct?

When you are at the point where the court is supervising you, THERE IS A PROBLEM, and the problem isn't with the court, the supervisor or the agencies.

By the way, I decided I would just have male "carers" to try to avoid any further complications. Men can naturally run the risk of fallen for women who are being paid to be support workers. I'm unhappy that the updated conditions for my CPO now have way too many restrictions, including more supervision and a ban on contacting the women who had me charged, since my intent was just to make amends. Well, that and no unsupervised Internet activities.

For Peter A: Can a counselor take control of your life (behind your back) legally? Without your consent? How could this be? Unless you were having a breakdown and even then, wouldn't a T's "help" end when you recovered? How do you fight to regain your life after being violated and exploited by a T for their financial gain?

Good articles for you: https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.u...vide-your-care

I think the ones set up through 'social services' could be like this, as they are having to follow orders. It's maybe not a case of they're purposefully doing it to be spies. They might have to be under orders to say what occurs doing support shifts because of the law. Normally they put reports in a folder, but my supervisor may have been ringing them up to ask fishy questions, and one reason I want my privacy respected is because the police (in the past) had a habit of visiting venues people divulged information about. Pool halls, my friend's house, etc. This is why I'm not going to work with any caregivers assigned to me by social workers, because I don't want people getting bright ideas about using them as watchdogs. As long as the 'supervision order' is in place, there will be way too much "digging" going on.

With that said, I have nothing to hide from him, really. I'm not meant to be online unless I am "supervised" and so I don't want support workers noting down all my habits. For example, posts on Facebook record the date and time they were submitted. So that means they'd know if I've been using it outwith support hours.

That guy who the court assigned to monitor me seems like the obnoxious type, so I don't want him knowing my day to day habits. He does occasionally act nice, but I think that's some ploy to make me think things will be okay. All I did was tell him during a random conversation once, that I let my female dentist (who is married) know what happened with my previous support workers (because she knows I had support workers coming during a check-up and/or treatment) and then he thought I had "feelings" for her like I had feelings for the two care workers who had me charged. He ended up writing a letter to her practice (although I never told him where she works, I assume the NHS would have me on file) and then he apparently had his boss contact her. Jesus!

I'm not sure if I'll be able to hire personal assistants; I was told about them through my advocate, but he seems to chop and change what he says during my next appointments with him, so it's not helpful.

I'm seeing my advocate next week to discuss a way to obtain new workers.