what is a good career path for someone suffering with lupus??

[March2012]

i have a level 3 diploma in health and social care but not sure if the hours would be too much. any suggestions please??

[mstr]

What a good question and I would be interested in the responses. I have worked all my life until alst year (aged 50 now) as a social worker. Would love to go back but not sure this illness would lend itself to a demanding and stressful role......time to move on but to what??? I would be very interested in the responses to this one xx

[DaleDiva]

Brilliant question! I am a qualified nurse and couldn't do the hours/physical work anymore, so switched to being a Clinic Co-Ordinator, which is a more admin role, doing 9-3. However, this is now becoming too much for me, so where do I go from here?

Answers on a postcard please

[Carolha]

Having been trained in advice and guidance level 4 I would say a change of direction could be one possible route. I had to finish work my role entailed working with business, schools, children, colleges and required a lot of travelling and paperwork. It was very stressful. Now just a small amount of stress tips me over. I think it all depends on the individual and how they feel they can handle, unfortunately I always found working with others was the stress factor in the end, due to one reason or another. If you feel you could return, part- time might be an option, teaching others in this line of work, writing a book about it or working for yourself in a consultancy capacity so that you can chose your hours. There is a teaching agency where you can chose whether to work or not. You could have a hobby, sewing or knitting where you could advertise your skills to make things for others. I don't know you well enough. There is a disability employment adviser in Jobcentres who should be able to help, try and contact them. Hope this helps to some degree. Xx

[steadilymovingforward]

Go down to your local adult careers centre...maybe learn direct?...and take a psychometric test. You plug in all your skills, personality traits, limitations etc and it pulls off a list of suitable career paths...I did and it was the best thing I ever did...surprisingly accurate!!

Good luck

xxx

[twist1 in reply to steadilymovingforward]

Hi what kind of career paths did they suggest for you?

[steadilymovingforward in reply to twist1]

Loads but Psychology really stood out for me in the list and I thought...why didn't I think of this before?...I love it and it's all I want to do now

[senorascully]

I was a nurse for years and had a great opportunity to go into occupational therapy-did one year of my degree but had to give it up-physically the placements were unmanageable/the stress of exams,assignments made me very ill and I stopped.

Then returned to work part time in the community but this was now too much physically/the office environment made me I'll-noise,lights etc-I couldn't concentrate. They were great and changed hours to work more from home but it was the physical side of the job that got me in the end-having to be up/showered and dressed to then drive to a client was too much.

I was depressed at having to give it up.

I know do admin work from home-I have a very understanding partner who owns the business. I can rest when I want/stay in my pyjamas if I have no energy to dress-it's perfect for me.

I still grieve for the life I've lost as I loved my work but my health is more important-taken a long time to realise that!!!!

Good luck in all you do.

[DaleDiva]

I took the career guidance psychometric testing thing and it came up with funeral director!!!

[steadilymovingforward in reply to DaleDiva]

My friend's a funeral director and she loves it!!

[Hidden]

Hi there. The only workable solution for me was to become self-employed. Even I knew that I was going to be far too unreliable to expect an employer to put up with it. In the dim and distant past I had experience the other way around with a long term ill employee. I sympathised as much as I could but it became a real strain on the business not knowing if they were going to turn up or not and we did lose clients as a result. Now the boot is on the other foot and I didn't want to cause the same problems for someone else. I work from home, mostly communicating with clients via Internet. This is the sixteenth year I've been working like this which shows that it can work out well.

[JenniferZhou]

Great question. This is something that's been weighing heavily on my mind for a long time.

I'm currently in the middle of a psych degree, and the plan always was to go into graduate medicine or nursing afterwards. Obviously since being diagnosed I've seriously been doubting whether I could cope with the degree never mind the job. And I seriously doubt I would be allowed to have the vaccinations needed to work in a hospital.

Working in healthcare is basically all I've ever wanted to do so I've been actually terrified about asking my consultant what my chances are..

[scoobydoo1]

from my experience as an a/e nurse its bloody hard work, I manage 30 hours. my advice would be not to do nursing, too much stress, heavy lifting, shifts ,environment- noisy, strip lights, no breaks blame culture etc etc. health care would I think be out as you have to have all the inoculation's to start with. wish you all the luck. mark.

[lowicklady55]

Good question....I have no qualifications I am soon to be 53. I was unemployed since last October and before that off work for 12 months. I took a caring job in Feb, which lasted 3 months. The flexibility was too tiring for me, working from 7am-2pm then 4pm- 7pm. As I had never done anything like this before I found the lifting quite tiring and occasionally I would get the lupus stabbing pain. In the end I was getting too many so I finished. At the moment I am cleaning in peoples homes, which is OK, but I am not getting the hours that I need to pay the mortgage.

However on Monday I have another interview for an office assistant which is full time 9-5.30pm Mon-Fri. It's about half an hour travelling by car. It is vey difficult for people of our age and with the experience of life to get work, when of course there are so many young people out of work. My niece has done a 4 year degree in architectural design for what..

Have a good day job hunters liz