Just another day as an autism support worker.

I support a young adult with autism. He loves Vimto and jigsaw puzzles. He’s also non-verbal and has a few behavioural issues. He needs 1:1 care at all times. When he is ill he’s often unable to communicate clearly what is wrong and where/why, so he will try to draw attention to the fact he’s not feeling 100% in “unconventional” ways. My coworkers and I have had drinks poured over us, been scratched, had to clean up various bodily fluids, and had to salvage various household items from the toilet, when we haven’t been able to find the root of his problems (or we haven’t been able to solve them - he has one ongoing medical issue that he’s awaiting treatment for).
But this day was the worst. Recently, he ripped his bathroom sink off the wall. We had to prop it up with a chair while we called the housing maintenance company, to prevent water gushing out of the connecting pipes. He was so strong and so fast; one second he was sat on the toilet and the next he was holding his sink in his hands. 20mins later he snapped their kitchen tabletop clean in half. He’s generally a lovely, very sweet person and it must be so frustrating for him to not be able to tell us what’s wrong.

TL;DR: Young adult with autism pulls his sink off his wall trying to tell us that he’s feeling unwell.

I’m happy to try answer any questions you might have about support work/autism.