I live in supported living and have a social service care package. I get 21 hours a week one to one support and access to 55 shared hours a week between 3 other people with Intellectual disabilities/Autism.
I have been on holiday to Germany in 2015 for 5 days with my support staff, back then the support company charged service users for 8 hours a day for their support which made it affordable to go on holiday. Now the care company charges for the full day (15 hours) at £15.00 a hour and a sleep at £75.00 = £300 a day staff support costs basically - (staff only get paid minimum wage though)
I would like to travel to India for 3 weeks to visit religious sites for blessings and healing - but am unable to travel on my own without support staff. In support costs alone would be over £6.000 for 3 weeks - 2 weeks is £4.000 and 1 week is £2.000 and their is not point going just for one week!
This isn’t counting expenditure for flights and accommodation, domestic flight within India…etc Which would be double as I’ll be paying for two people… Flights to Mumbai for 2 people in November are £1.300 alone…
About a 2 years ago we had a staff member leave the support company, he retired, lives on his own, likes to travel to Thailand frequently, we often talked about different countries and his holidays. He was a good support worker. He had to be DBS criminal records checked to work at the support company. If I offered him say £1.000 salary for the 3 weeks to travel to India with me and paid for accommodation and flights, all expenditure… Maybe working 30 hours a week with me, I would be flexible with the hours, also doing tourist things after I’ve cleansed my soul - he might say yes?
I haven’t asked him, I would have to put it to social services first… I think its the best possible way for me to go to India… The only sag is he worked here when I seriously harmed myself cutting the microchip out my left armpit and he’s seem me sectioned multiple times, sometimes forcibly. Also delusions have been around ritualistic sacrificing myself to Buddha. That might put if off although I’ve been stable for nearly 3 years… Also I think he’s don’t know about the Buddha part? Hopefully!
Do you think that sounds like a good idea, if this fails do you think if I advertised on support sites for a support worker to accompany me would be a good idea? How would I do this? Sorry for rambling…