Independent Living

This section is about my life as an autistic person. Support, housing, keeping up with house and self-care routines. Executive function and the pitfalls of having deficits in this area.

I live independently, but I need a lot of support to do the things other people take for granted. It is very difficult for me to organise myself or make myself do things, even if I know they need to be done and want to do them. These kinds of problems are called Executive Dysfunction, or Executive Function Deficits and they're really common in ASDs.

ILS-EF List

Executive Function and learning Independent Living Skills despite problems in that area, has been a topic of interest to me lately. I have started a mailing list for people similar to myself to moan without judgement and share strategies and little tiny successes.

Support

We have funding for a substantial amount of support from a personal assistant. We are currently without one, but finding someone is proving difficult. See the job description for more about the job itself or our needs.

July 17, 2003

Our support worker is working out less well than we had hoped. We are in the beginning of the process of trying to find a replacement, but the one we have now will stay with us until we get someone.

Housing

We currently live in a 2 bedroom terraced house in Cheshire, England. We move a lot and have to move yet again.

October 17, 2003

Being homeless turned out to be no blessing, disguised or otherwise. It's a long story (very long), but we should be okay now. We have an application in for a privately rented 3 bedroom terraced (attached) house very near here. We should be moving around the beginning of November.

August 6, 2003

Ian aggravated yet another landlord who has now decided he doesn't want us to live here any longer. We've been given two months' notice. Hopefully that will be long enough for the council to find us permanent housing so we don't have to keep going through this. Obviously we have difficulty maintaining housing and should now be classed as "difficult to house" which may give us extra points. The fact that I am pregnant (after the baby is born we'll be officially overcrowded), we are both disabled, and we are iminently homeless will also get us extra points. It's not the ideal way to move, but it could be a blessing in disguise.

Benefits & Finances

We live cheap and have disability benefits, so we're doing okay financially. The problem with being on benefits is having to reapply all the time!

August 6, 2003

The doctor came only a couple weeks ago to reassess me for Disability Living Allowance (DLA). I had my friend here who helped me last time. I have already received notice back that I have been awarded the middle rate for care and the lower rate for mobility. This is less than last time, when I had high rate care, but I believe the decision is fair and won't appeal it. DLA itself is an extra 52 pounds/week and getting this benefit leads to many others being increased. So we're back to having plenty of money for our very modest needs.

July 17, 2003

I have to be reassessed for disability benefits. Because I couldn't complete the form on my own and had no help, they are sending a doctor out to see me. The last time the doctor was great, but it's someone else this time.

Household

Ian and I have trouble managing the basic routines of self-care, housework, and other aspects of life, which is why we have a support worker. This subsection contains information about maintaining the household and the people in it: housework, cooking, eating, sleeping, bathing, that sort of thing. Also, physical and mental health and maintenance thereof.

I am a terrible housekeeper, but a reasonably good cook, if a bit hazardous and very messy. I did pull off a Thanksgiving dinner for 12 recently.

July or August

The house is a mess as always. We're no better on that. The social worker is going to try to get us a cleaner from an agency to help us at least temporarily.