I agree with corinne here if you have respite and you are happy with both the hours and quality of service there is no real need to change it as it could complicate it further

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Our Irish members can also use our new website for Ireland which is

I was refused direct payments a while ago, and got offered a crossroads service instead. The only problem was, they could only offer me a morning session, despite me telling them he slept pretty much all morning (he used to wake up stupidly early, have breakfast and go back to sleep till about 11!). The woman came about 3 times, and every time he was asleep so she used to go again. She used to get stroppy that I wouldn't wake him up, but he was at nursery in the afternoons. Then he got weighed, and found to be 32lb, I was then informed that they were no longer able to do respite as they weren't allowed to lift him.
He started full time school soon after so I gave up.

what?? so just what are crossroads supposed to do? is it for mental disabilities only? if they are not allowed to lift him alone then that means they need two staff for each session. they are supposed to do an assessment to work out what your needs are and when you need them. they have enough staff for you to decide when you want them, its usually evenings so you can go for a meal or to the cinema (thats what we were offered anyway)
the argument we had with them was they said we were not allowed to have the doors locked unless the keys were kept in the door. i said i will give you the keys to keep on you but not in the door as matt can work locks and he escapes (they knew this as he has escaped from everywhere hehe) but as we couldnt agree it got shelved, then the assessor that came out left and forgot to pass us on lol hey ho thats stoke for ya

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the fact is, if you have been assessed by social services as requiring crossroads sessions but they wont fulfil the requirement then go back to social services and say you need someone to give you a break.
corinne
(This post was last modified: 03-22-2010 10:18 PM by corinne.)

I've no idea, I don't want to 'rubbish' them, as we did have a fab crossroads worker, but she left as he started nursery and I didn't want him to start again with someone new at the same time..
I was never offered any evening help, although thats not much good as we have 2 other children so we couldn't go out anyway :\
I'm really bored of fighting for every little thing (I know respite isn't a 'little' thing, but its just taken me 3 years to get a bath aid ) I'm also fighting for housing adaptations and I don't have the energy for this at the moment.
(This post was last modified: 03-22-2010 11:18 PM by Daniel.)

i know, sometimes its easier to just give up than fight for every little thing and you have to choose what you have the energy to fight for. i wasnt trying to rubbish crossroads, i should have kept phoning them until it was sorted but as i didnt want respite in the home. we had overnight respite at the time but we were allocated direct payments as well but there wasnt any money lol so they arranged for so many hours of crossroads. because we had managed with just the respite for so many years we didnt push crossroads
corinne