Disclosure update!

I've just realised that I forgot to mention - I now have my enhanced disclosure - at last, it came through last Tuesday!

Rather disturbingly, it seems there are new guidelines about to be introduced, regarding people who have had jail sentences - no matter what for, for how long, or how long ago. It is as yet unclear how exactly these should be interpreted, but the inference is that such history would automatically bar such persons from doing care/support work - which, as my boss at Enable said, does seem rather harsh, especially if the sentences in question occurred many years ago and the person hasn't been in trouble with the law again since...

Fortunately for me, they seem to be taking the view that as these guidelines haven't actually been introduced yet, that they don't apply to me - and in any case, they're happy to accept my explanation that the only reason I ended up dallying with the criminal justice system at all was in order to escape the dreadful abuse I was receiving from the mental health system at the time.

Taken literally, these guidelines could have pretty awful implications for a lot of people who, like me, went off the rails as teenagers, or those whose crimes arose as a result of their mental health issues, who were only sent to prison as a last resort, because there was no secure hospital accommodation available for them - which again, was arguably so in my case. At the time, I was assessed by three doctors, all of whom said that while I did not fit the criteria for admission to the high security State Hospital at Carstairs, I was also not fit enough for a prison sentence; and in the end I only got one because the local hospital refused to re-admit me, and there was no medium secure facility available!

I met with Sean, my new boss, for a couple of hours last Friday, and learned a bit about the two people they want me to support. Both live fairly close to me, and have very mild learning disabilities that, nevertheless, have resulted in them spending significant parts of their lives in hospitals. One also has autism, and the other obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The next stage is induction training - which is next Monday afternoon. I just hope I feel up to it on the day...