Every second Friday is Craige's signing on day. It's always stressful because he hates it. He hates having to be somewhere at a particular time, he hates having to speak to a stranger and he hates having to show what he's done to find work. He takes his time to fill in his forms to say what he's done to find a job. He doesn't really look for a job because he doesn't really want one, but if he fills in his forms well then it means he doesn't have to do much talking. He won't lie on the forms so we have to spend some time looking through the paper and on the internet to see if there are any suitable jobs. One day maybe that job will materialise, we can live in hope.
The only reason he is signing on is because we found out about a centre that helps young adults just like Craige. First they help them understand themselves, why they are the way they are, how they can control their behaviour. Then they help them think about what sort of work they could do, what they would like to do and what they are capable of doing. Finally they help them into a work situation with lots of hand holding support. We went to chat with them and both myself and Craige were really impressed (although you'd have to know Craige really well to know that he was impressed.) They told us they were willing to help Craige but they had a waiting list of 6 months and he would need to be signing on at the jobcentre to be accepted. That's why he signs on and we have to endure this nightmare every 2 weeks.
At the moment he's doing what they call intensive job hunting which means he has to sign on every week for six weeks. As you can imagine he's not very impressed with that. The stress starts on Thursday evening and continues to at least an hour after the signing. Today he didn't go. He was working up to going but just couldn't do it. I called them, but now it's up to him to call them next week and arrange a new appointment.....he has to make a phone call!!
He went to bed this afternoon and woke up early evening. He was claiming he couldn't remember the rest of the day. He is having a particularly difficult time at the moment because of his sister being away. I'm not really sure wether the problem lies in her being away, or her being with their dad. Craige was given the option to go too (he has been before) but he declined. He does miss Cassie though even though he would not admit it in a million years.
(Craige is my 21 year old son who has Aspergers Syndrome)
2 comments:
My son is aspergers too, and i could relate to your post.
Stefan has just left school, a special school, so he is out in the big bad world and we're looking for suitable courses. I think we've found one at Rathbones in Birmingham doing horticulture, but the course you have found sounds fantastic, especially the part where they explain why they are like they are, i think Stefan would really benefit from something like that!
Loving your blog, i pop in quite a bit :-)
Helene
Hi Helene, I pop over to your blog too, I truly admire your lovely family, I thought 4 kids was hard work :-)
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