With staff on site 24/7?
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To me, yes or old age.
If I understand your question right, you don’t have to be severely disabled to live in a group home. Most people in group homes have different degrees of functioning. I’ve been in several group homes and they were very different. Different rules, different requirements. Also, the owners demand different stuff from a client.
But personally, when I was in a group home in my thirties from 1990-95, those were my most productive years. I had just got clean from crack and I was working, I was going to school, I was going to 5 or 6 AA, CA, or NA meetings a week.
I was visiting my sister on most weekends and hanging out with her and her friends. I had a friend at the house and we hung out or went and saw movies, or went to Tower records to buy CD’s and VHS tapes or simply hung out at the house and drank soda, listened to music and talked.
I still had symptoms but I had an OK life. Some people at the group home spent the majority of their time smoking pot and drinking. If I was 17 that would have been fine for me but I had kind of outgrown it and I was a big proponent of AA to whoever wanted to listen.
But to get back to my earlier point about different levels of functioning. It was all men and some people were really messed up, not many of them worked. But other people had jobs besides me.
Degree of disability can be hard to gauge sometimes. Everybody has their strengths, and maybe all the guys who partied had more friends than me or more money. IDK.
Group homes can be drastically different. I lived in one where there were strict rules and curfews and intense structure. The one I described above was hardly structured except we always ate together and followed a few simple guidelines like making your own bed, doing your laundry on weekends, didn’t leave messes anywhere, don’t bug other clients too much. But we had all the freedom we wanted.
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I’m sick of being known as service user. I have lived in supported living (group home) for 8 years and I haven’t made any progression or meaningful relationships. I have asked to more but I continue to be ignored. I would like my own accommodation and have a few cats.
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Do have some kind of case worker who can advocate for you?
He doesn’t listen to me or care. I moan about all the same things all the time and nothing happens.
I get the same thing. My case worker doesn’t listen at all.
I am sorry you have been in supported housing for 8 years. That’s a long time.
Where I live they try to dump you back in the community asap.
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I live in a home that is staffed 8am-10pm. I suggested moving with my sister today but they said I am too unwell. I dont see it. I’ve been in and out of homes for the last 4 years. Doing it on my own never got me anywhere so I guess I’ll just listen to what they say. I feel like my functioning is average
My case worker says it’s okay to moan, but I am moaning, irritable, feeling trapped all the time. Nothing ever changes.
The first step I need to move out is getting my disability benefits paid back to me, at the moment they are paid to social services and they give me an allowance… I told my case worker (nurse) and social worker that I want to be more independent, that I want my money paid back to me… They aren’t very accommodating, saying that I need a capacity assessment from a psychologist, The thing is they already know I have capacity. I have a credit card which is always paid off, a bank overdraft facility and mobile phone contract… I’m managing my finances fine… Does that look like I lack capacity. They are just messing me around. They know it’ll take months to see a psychologist. Its making me really frustrated.
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This is basically my life.
- No control where I live
- No control who I live with
- No control over my finances
- No control over what medication I take
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It sounds like he/she is either a bad case manager not doing his/her job or maybe they don’t understand what you want, maybe the person is not clear as to what you want.
It might be up to you to light a fire under his ass to get him moving and do his/her job and help you.
My physical doctor is an indian woman who is really nice and always seems happy to see me and I like her.
Way back in March she refered me to a specialist to look at my kidney function. The referal should have been an easy process that takes a couple of weeks to finalize and get the paperwork straight.
But there were miscommunications between her and the specialist and after more than 30 phone calls between me and both of them , I was no more closer to getting seen than when I first started. In the mean time I had talked to at least 10 other periphial nurses and workers at certain times every month since March about this.
This is known as “falling through the cracks”. Finally, by a stroke of good luck I got the right help. My nephew has a good job at a large business firm and just coincidentily his company’s benefits gives free aid to him, and any relative of his who was having problems like I was having.
So he gave them my sisters names and a worker called my sisters to arrange for them to help me. It turns out I started corresponding with the woman via e-mail and she turned out to be really nice and after two weeks she made calls to by doctor and the clinic and cut through all the bull and after 7 months I finally had my doctors appointment.
It was bad news but at least now I can start treating my health problem. I’m sorry this is so long, my point is coming up.
I also have had a nice caseworker of my own for these past four years. He’s helped me in many ways, in fact he found this apartment for me. He’s a good guy but I’ve always felt he was kind of a minor bulls*iter who doesn’t quite know what he’s doing all the time and he’s from New York and just kind of wings it as he goes along using whatever he learned while running in the streets in his youth.
But again, when we started wotking together it started off nice and I saw him a lot but then since I am fairly stable we arranged instead of seeing him once a week, that we would get together only once a month through a phone call or in person. But I barely heard from him.
If I didn’t call him occasionally, then I would never hear from him except in a couple of emergencies. This is how it has been for the past two years. Finally, just a month ago I was having trouble with neighbors and it was impacting other parts of my life so he called a meeting with him, my sisters, my therapist, and a counselor and we cleared up some crap.
My long point is that we have to force these guys to help us. If we act like we don’t care about ourselves they won’t care either. Case workers, therapists, psychiatrists etc. can be the nicest people but they’re only human and nice people make mistakes too and they might have a huge caseload of other clients and so if a client is less vocal than others he/she can get lost in the shuffle and pushed aside and forgotten about. I don’t know if this describes you but I learned that I have to demand services and make my presence known. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” We are not to blame for bad caseworkers but it’s either we go around them or over them to get our needs met.
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Is there fast internet? Can you have a computer and your own room? That’s all you really need lol 
I know years ago,before I met my wife, a group home was a possible option for me. I was regarded as having chronic schizophrenia and having a severe disability.
However are we talking about severe disability = bipolar,psychotic depression, schizophrenia or schizoaffective ?
Or are we talking about the severe end of one of those conditions ?
All I know is if left without support I’d struggle to maintain a healthy independence . A group home would be a possibility.
By the first definition I’m severely disabled . As to whether I’m at the severe end of schizoaffective- then no.
Does the additional factor of Asperger’s change that? I don’t know.
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Depends on the severity. My Asperger’s is so mild it only affects me getting a girlfriend and making friends. I get distraught from it but it gives me the ability to work hard, be honest, and think differently. Asperger’s is mild autism. Some psychologists, psychiatrists cannot even tell I have it. They’ve only met the severe cases and it pisses me off. There are people like Dave Asprey who have it and probably some billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg.
I cannot work or function do to psychosis or my thinking and lack of motivation and organization. I cannot complete tasks like I used to.
I often think does my clinical team think I’m more on the severe end of schizoaffective? I haven’t committed a serious crime, not considered dangerous but my life is restrictive, I think its because I seriously harmed myself cutting a microchip out my armpit.
I have been on a continuous CTO since 2013. I’ve had no psychosis since Nov 2018, I suffer from extreme mood swings which are debilitating.
How many people here have had a continual community nurse/case worker for years. I have had one for 9 years, with no end date. I mostly read that community nursing/CPN’s are time limited and used only when in crisis, not continuous. People with SZ/SZA get transferred back to their GP when stable…
Why do they keep me on?
I know people with Asperger’s who are very debilitated by the condition, As ASD is a spectrum, Asperger’s can be quite severe.
I guess. I don’t qualify for ASD anymore since they got rid of Aspergers. I took the autism test and passed and also did a psychological exam and they said my brain is wired exactly like someone with Aspergers. I struggled as a kid, especially with empathy. Being disabled has given me more compassion and empathy for others.
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I think I would be if not on the depot. In my experience GPs are not very good when it comes to mental illnesses.
It could also be because I’m on a depot.
I have a tendency to write ranting emails to my community nurse.
I think depending on my mood I’m very indecisive in what I want, thats why he probably doesn’t listen.
Yes you do. Those with Asperger’s in the dsm iv were put in the ASD category with the DSM 5.
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