Group Support Session 4 - Occupation

This week's support session was about occupation, and although I certainly learned some things from it, I don't think I gained as much from this session as I have from the others. One thing I did learn was that occupation doesn't just refer to your job. It means anything that takes up your time and keeps you occupied so it can include your self care routines, your interests and hobbies, as well as your job. The reason I didn't get as much out of this session is because our group has a tendency to run away with the conversation but the adjudicators have always brought us back onto topic to keep the session at least somewhat timely. Whereas this week it was lead by an occupational therapist who hadn't joined us before and he seemed to just let us loose to talk a lot more than the normal adjudicators do, so there were a few bits that we didn't have time to cover.

But still, we discussed how doing meaningful and engaging activities is beneficial to mental health, and we explored some of the barriers that can stop us from doing these and how to overcome them. Some of the barriers mentioned were social skills, environments, sensory issues and more. My personal fix to overcome social issues is to go to/do things on my own. Whenever I go to a gig or to a wrestling show or anything like that I always go on my own because I find it lets me concentrate more on the show that I've gone to see, and therefore I enjoy it more. When I've been to gigs and shows with other people I've always felt a need to concentrate more on them than the thing we've gone to see so I can't enjoy it as much as I would.

Environments refers to anything about the place such as it being an unfamiliar location or it being too busy with people. A strategy that was mentioned for overcoming both of these was to investigate the place in advance so that you can get a feel of where things are, where there might be a quiet area to escape to, or where/how you can access anything else that might help you dependent on your needs. Sensory issues can link into the environment as things like strong smells or bright, flashing lights for example can be distressing for those with sensory processing difficulties. To help with that the best thing to do is to be aware of your own sensory profile (as I mentioned in last week's post) and equip yourself with the best coping strategies for you. This could be sun glasses to protect against bright lights, ear plugs or noise-cancelling headphones to protect against loud noises, or anything else that you find helps you to overcome your difficulties so that you can enjoy what you're doing.

There were 2 things we learned from this week's session that I thought could potentially be really helpful to me in the future, and are definitely worth sharing. The first one is that you can apply for a Safe Place card, which is a scheme that's run across the UK and means that if you need to find somewhere for support or even just to escape from the world for a bit while you're out and about there are certain venues registered to the scheme where you can do this. As I live in York we were given the link for the Safe Places York website, which you can find here, but it's also worth searching online for the scheme in your local area as it is something that's run nationwide. I was surprised at some of the actual venues in York city centre that are signed up to the scheme as I was expecting things like cafes, libraries and so on, which there is but there are also things like the HSBC branch in Parliament Street, the Theatre Royal and DIG, which is an archaeological adventure place for kids.

The other thing I learned is that the government run a scheme called Access To Work, which is there to help disabled people or people with physical or mental health conditions that are affecting them at work. Legally an employer has an obligation to make any reasonable adjustments, but if you're having difficulty with this then Access To Work can help you. They can even offer grants to help towards the cost of things like special equipment, physical adaptations and getting to and from work. The scheme wasn't mentioned in great detail in the session but it may be worth looking at the website here.

This then leads me on to the final section that we covered, which is work and was mainly around disclosing autism to your employer or potential employer. While there's no definitive right or wrong answer to this dilemma we debated whether it's best to tell potential employers during recruitment that you're autistic or not. The plus side of telling them would be that they'll be aware from the start and they'll be able to take you on knowing what adjustments you might need, or that you may need some adjustments to be made as you get to know the job. They can also help with the interview process by providing interview questions in advance or by potentially using a different method of assessment. Autism may also help demonstrate to an employer the skills you have and be a positive reason for why you'd be good in the role.The down side is that the recruiters may show bias if they know you're autistic (whether they intend to or not) and this might lead to your application not being considered. Again, there's no right or wrong answer to this dilemma as it's all down to personal preference and judgment. I would personally prefer to tell an employer during the application process because the positives outweigh the negatives, especially in a world where acceptance of disability as a whole is on the increase. With that said, I see it as a case of when to tell them rather than whether to tell them. I wouldn't necessarily include it in my CV or tell them straight away, but I would certainly tell them after they've had a little while to see how I am and my strengths and weaknesses.