Imagine you were a keen arty type person and wanted to learn to make better
mosaics.

You already knew a little bit, but were eager to learn more, and heard through a friend of an awesome course delivered by the most amazing mosaic artist.

She was well respected in her field – you
decided that you would rearrange your busy life to fit in her course
because it was the best around, and you knew you wouldn’t get another
chance to learn from someone of this high calibre.

It was hard to get the night free, but with lots of juggling you managed to fit it in. Due to high demand, the course was not cheap, but you budgeted and scraped together the money. You enrolled in the course and were really looking forward to it.

The first night arrived and you turned up eager to learn. There
were lots of people there, but you noticed at one table there were three people
who had physical disabilities and were struggling to physically pick
up the tile pieces and place them in position. The tutor saw they were
struggling and looked at your work and said – “you seem to be doing ok
– can you sit with this group and help them put their tiles in place?”

You felt you couldn’t really say no as she didn’t give you that
option as she walked off to continue the class. You spent the rest of
the time placing pieces of tile on your group’s work boards and
couldn’t spend any time on your own work or ask questions about
mosaics.

You also struggled to hear what she was saying anyway because
the people in your group kept asking you to help them put their pieces in
place.

At the next course session, it was automatically assumed you were
going to help the same group again, as you had had ‘your seat saved there for you’.

• How do you think you would have felt?
• Good value for money?
• Did you actually learn anything you wanted/needed to from the course?
• Did you feel used and abused?
• An unpaid staff member?
• An unwilling volunteer?
• What would you do?

If you have the skills needed, you could complain and get your money
back – but this wouldn’t get you the new knowledge you wanted to learn about mosaics.

What if you did not have the skills to complain?

You could just quietly leave, without any fuss, feeling?

This is how Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can develop.

Welcome to the reality for many of our ‘more independent’ people on the spectrum when they try to seek help for themselves, especially in the area of social skills development.

The VFTS Trust has been set up by them, for them, to give our people
a place to go where our needs can be addressed ….. we do NOT take
on the roles of supervisory care or support.

If people need supervisory support, there are other organizations who will be able to meet their needs. It is not our role to do so.

To our people – if this raises issues for you and you need to talk…. we are here… you can contact us……