Life after day centres

Hello, it’s me again. The last time I wrote was more than a year
ago (19 February 2004), so I thought I’d let you know what’s been
happening in my life.

You may remember my local council was closing the day centres and I
was worried about what I would do when my carer had to go out.

One good thing has been that I’ve gone back to get some education –
I am learning to read and write and I go to college three days a
week.

But there was still a problem at the weekends and in the evenings
if my carer had to go to meetings or go shopping, as I am
frightened to stay in the house on my own.

So about a year ago I asked for a meeting. I asked my officer at
that time to help me, and she set it up. There was me, my officer,
my carer’s officer and my carer.

I got no satisfaction as they all said I should be able to stay in
the house on my own. They did not believe me that I was
scared.

I did not know who to complain to so I wrote to the council. The
council sent the letter to the care manager and she said she would
send somebody around in a couple of weeks.

I did not hear from her for a while, so I asked my friend to help
me to find out when she was going to send somebody. She fixed up a
meeting and I asked for my friend to come with me.

That meeting was positive; we all decided I needed to move. But
since then I have had a load of problems.

I feel the care manager has been making it very difficult for me.
She goes to a meeting about a possible placement and then says it’s
not suitable for me to go there.

Now my carer says her officer has told her she does not have to
stay in for me – so she goes out more and I have to find somebody
that I can go to.

I have to pay somebody out of my money to go and spend two or three
nights there. If I do this so many times I will run out of
money.

I did not have to pay when I lived with my previous carer. Also,
when my present carer is going out she may tell me only the day
before – how can I find somewhere to go at such short notice?

If carers are not going to compromise when they take people in,
they should not do it.

The care manager says there are no suitable vacancies in the adult
placement scheme, so I am going to move again out of this
scheme.

I am not pleased about this, but think the next organisation will
meet my needs. I have been to see two of the homes from this
organisation.

But I am still very cross that the adult placement scheme could not
try to find somewhere that met my needs.

Mabel Cooper has a learning difficulty