PERSONAL ASSISTANT / SUPPORT WORKER FOR A YOUNG PERSON WITH ASPERGER SYNDROME
We are seeking a reliable, proactive, organised and supportive person to work as a Personal Assistant and Support Worker for a bright and creative individual with a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome. This role will suit someone who is a good organiser, dedicated, reliable and responsible. You will be working as part of a team of part-time support workers who currently support the young person.
About the individual to be supported:
The young person is an aspiring artist and writer. The young person is bright, knowledgeable, articulate and creative. They have huge creative potential and the right person will support them in realising it.
Their challenges: They have significant sensory processing challenges and generally high levels of anxiety. They describe experiencing generally high levels of physical pain as a result of their sensory challenges and suspected fibro myalgia, this can cause them to be anxious and withdrawn. They tend to avoid social situations and the outside world and can find leaving the house very difficult and very rarely go out. They can be rigid in approach and require support in order to feel motivated about tasks. They have difficulties with making decisions and choices. They struggle with planning, organising and sequencing the steps involved in performing tasks and can feel overwhelmed due to this (low executive function). They require prompting and reminding to do certain tasks.
Hours: Part-time, flexible and variable - including some evenings and weekends possibly. You will be working as part of a team so there will be flexibility available around the hours worked. The young persons' parents travel away quite often and the applicant may also be required to do overnights sometimes if possible.
Starting salary: £11 per hour for daytime hours. Overnight rate to be confirmed.
Location: South West London
The job:
The core purpose of the role is to support the young person and his mother and help him develop his autonomy and independent living skills, especially as he will be moving into independent living with his support workers in the not too distant future (no date yet).
An important part of the support worker role is to work as a scribe for the young person. He is currently writing a book but has severe dyslexia and is unable to do this without the support of a scribe. So good typing skills are a must.
For the time being, you will work with the individual at their family home.
Your role will include typical PA administrative duties such as ability to touch type, organising, correspondence, researching, planning, diary management and any administrative support the young person's mother may need. Responsibilities will also include creative thinking and proactivity around how to enable and develop the young person in their creative activities and the things which are important to them.
There will also be some domestic duties including cooking and cleaning – see point 11 below for more details.
Other duties will include:
1. Liaising and sometimes working together with the other PA/support workers, tutors and therapists in the team who also support the young person.
2. Generating opportunities relating to their artwork such as exhibitions, press coverage, merchandising and marketing. Supporting the young person in developing opportunities around creative writing such as competitions, poetry readings, publishing etc.
Also to find ways to involve the young person in this to help them develop their sense of ownership, achievement and autonomy is also important.
3. Scribing (touch typing to take dictation) for the young person for creative writing projects.The young person is a very keen writer but has severe dyslexia and currently needs a scribe to fulfil on creative writing projects. This is essential.
4. Befriending the young person, providing social interaction, chatting, perhaps sometimes playing computer games, viewing videos etc.
5. Support in making friends, joining online groups and communities, and developing a social network. Identifying possible sources, angles, social groups - goal is to find people that the young person enjoys sharing ideas with - ideally in London.
9. This role is also to support the young persons' mother who until recently has been his full-time carer and is currently fulfilling the role of 'care and education manager' which she hopes to 'hand over' in the near future. She will need support to enable her to have time to focus on her own interests/work/college courses etc. And to have time away from her caring role and in order for the young person to develop his independence and to get used to others supporting him.
10. Helping the young person develop their independent living skills such as online shopping; preparing basic meals;, supporting, reminding, prompting and encouraging them around self-care, housework, cleaning their room, making the bed etc, feeding the cat and to support them through the transition to independent living and beyond.
11. There will also be some domestic duties which will include: preparation of meals and helping the young person to learn to prepare meals, tidying and cleaning in the house as necessary, loading and emptying dishwasher, emptying bins, sweeping/hoovering, mopping, general tidying etc, loading, hanging and sorting washing, also cleaning and supporting the young person with cleaning their room, making the bed etc and supporting them in these tasks also and there may be some other domestic duties as required.
Essential Skills and Qualities
Ability to touch type and to scribe (take dictation)
Assertive and proactive.
Effective organisation skills.
Calm and flexible in approach and manner.
Willingness and ability to understand someone with Aspergers Syndrome and anxiety and sensory issues
Able to initiate conversations that will engage the young person.
Computer skills – email, internet, word documents etc. Liaising with technical support.
Sense of humour.
An awareness of the individual's difficulty with change and a willingness to commit long term to the role and ideally to give plenty of notice, to be agreed.
Flexible with shifts and holiday times so that there is always continuity of care for the young person.
Desirable Qualities:
Lives within reasonable travelling distance to London SW12
experience of working as a PA for someone with high functioning autism, high anxiety and sensory issues.
Creative and/or interested in creativity.
Knowledge of and interest in gaming industry, indie games, films
Reasonable general knowledge.
Own car (not essential)
Valid DBS.