From: ldonovan@u.washington.edu (Leslie Donovan)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Attendants take Advantage
Date: 6 Apr 92 21:14:50 GMT
Reply-To: ldonovan@u.washington.edu (Leslie Donovan)
X-Fidonet: Ablenews Conference

Index Number: 20804

I use attendants and I have had plenty of thefts, been taken of advantage
financially, etc.  AND I AM A RESPONSIBLE EMPLOYER.  I get references.
But the problem with references is that the references you get from a
prospective employee will almost always be references that will be
favorable to the applicant.  Some of my worst attendants and those who
have taken the most advantage of me have had excellent references, while
some of my best aides have had few references of any kind.  Sure, you can
go through an employment or referral agency-- but most of those applicants
will ask anywhere from $9-20 an hour.  If you are lucky enough to have an
Independent Living Center near you, that really is the way to go for their
pool of people don't ask those kind of wages (which most of us who use
attendants can't even begin to afford).  But even then they may not have
anyone available who will meet your needs and so you're back at square
one.  If you don't have an IL center nearby, you really do have to depend
on your own common sense and resources.  I have had access to IL centers
and have received some government aid and I still have ALWAYS had to hire
an aide on my own because the resources available when I needed them were
not suited for my needs.  When you depend on an aide for daily survival,
you simply can't often wait the 3-9 months it might take for the agencies
to find just the right person.  It sure isn't as easy as some who have
responded imply.  Here is the usual situation with many of us who use
attendant care.

We rely on part-time help because we can't pay for full-time help with our
resources.  We get them through ads in newspapers because the agency rates
are too exhorbitant.  We interview them-- often more than once-- get
references, try to ask as many pertinent and leading questions as
possible.  And then we have to rely on our guts to tell us which is the
best of the lot.  This kind of job does not necessarily attract the best
kind of people.  My experience has shown me that it is OFTEN those who
will take advantage who apply for these kind of jobs, or those who can't
hold a "regular" steady job, or those down on their luck and desperate for
any kind of work (which then makes them desperate enough to take advantage
when they can).  I have to admit though that one of my best attendants who
NEVER took advantage of me was a woman I took a chance on who had just
come out of treatment for alcohol and drug abuse.

Once I hired an aide after getting excellent references,
interviewing her 3 times, etc.  She moved in (I was trying the
live-in route at that time- i.e. partial rent in return for help)
and I realized two weeks later that she was a prostitute.  Luckily
she didn't bring her clients home, but I got rid of her all the
same.  What do you do when you're in bed and the attendant sneaks
into the medicine closet and steals your drugs or other belongings
without you even knowing that it is happening?  Much of the time
you don't even know something is missing until the attendant is no
longer working for you and your attempts to reach her/him at the
old address/phone come up empty.  How can you start civil
proceedings if you have a fake SS# or even a fake name?  It happens
more frequently than you can imagine.  And how many of us with
disabilities, who already expend a whole lot more time and energy
on the basic daily living stuff, have time to spend tracking
someone down and going to court over and over and over.

I have taken to hiding all my prescription drugs or keeping them in
a locked place and to keeping as close track as possible of things
in places I can't get to in my house.  It helps, but it still does
not solve the problem and simplistic answers that say "just learn
how to be a responsible employer" make me angry.  The problem will
not be solved until we can have the funding to be able to attract
the quality type of employees that agencies send out or enough of
our own money to attract people who are not unskilled, down and out
types to answer our ads in the papers.  Most of us are at poverty
level or not all that far above it.

Enough of my diatribe.  My point is just that it isn't as easy as
learning how to be a good employer; there are just too many other
factors involved in this whole issue.

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