One of Steven's support workers was reblog last night and reminded me of a very weird story that I'd completely forgotten about.
One of the Unit's objectives for Steven's time there was to get him to understand the concept of "task completion". They often linked this in with another objective: "increase independence skills". Not a bad idea at face value, but like everything, Steven has to understand the project or else he won't/can't invest in it.
This particular Wednesday morning was a disaster waiting to happen. Steven had two fairly inexperienced support workers working with him and the Unit's shift leader that day was a woman the support staff christened "Eva Braun" - a woman slightly intoxicated by the power she held over these vulnerable men in her charge.
Anyway, she decided that Steven needed to go and pick up his prescription. She also decided that Steven needed the exercise, so they had to walk there rather than take the bus. Not a great start. It was a good 30 minute walk to the GPs. Unfortunately, neither support worker had been to the surgery before and went in completely the opposite direction. After walking for about an hour they realised this and turned round. Steven must have been very confused by this point - to him, each trip must have a purpose and this didn't seem to have one. Eva had also given the guys instructions not to go into any shops, so when Steven decided he wanted to pop into the newsagents for a drink, they had a real struggle stopping him entering.
The guys decided to return to the Unit as by this time Steven is in meltdown. They got back and Eva wasn't happy. The task hadn't been completed, so she sent them straight back out again. This time, they went the right way but it was still another very long walk, By now, Steven is howling. It must have been a very difficult walk for all of them.
Later that day, I was contacted by the manager of the Unit to inform there had been an incident at the surgery. Apparently, Steven kicked a woman in the surgery, who just happened to be a council employee and she reported it back to the social worker. The support workers were asked to write incident reports but they both claimed that nothing serious had happened. Bizarrely, one of Steven's regular cab drivers just happened to be in the surgery at the same time and he confirmed the workers' story.
Nonetheless, both workers were suspended. Their reports weren't believed. The lovely cab driver, quite independently, wrote a report but that was ignored.
A couple of week's later, Steven was under a DoL authorisation, the two guys were sacked and Eva rose to greater heights.
:'-(
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