Darwinerasmus

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This user is a participant in
WikiProject Disability.

The origins of my wiki name

I took my name from Erasmus Darwin the grandfather of Charles Darwin - he wrote :

"would it be too bold to imagine that, in the great length of time since the earth began to exist, perhaps millions of ages before the commencement of the history of mankind would it be too bold to imagine that all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament, which the great First Cause endued with animality, with the power of acquiring new parts, attended with new propensities, directed by irritations, sensations, volitions and associations, and thus possessing the faculty of continuing to improve by its own inherent activity, and of delivering down these improvements by generation to its posterity, world without end!"

my work history and work interests

I formerly worked as a social worker . I was working in field social work with adults who have learning disabilities from April 2002 to January 2013. (I have worked with children and adults who have disabilities for 20 years approx in total) My qualifications are Dip.Sw. , B.A. (hons) and PQSW - 20 credits at M.A. level. I also hold a basic teaching qualification that qualifies me to teach literacy and numeracy to adults on a 1-1 basis.

I completed my first student social work placement at Nottinghamshire Coalition for Disabled People in 1998 and second at Fernleigh : Nottinghamshire Hospice in 1999. I have worked as a Community Service Volunteer full time for a year supporting a young man with Muscular Dystrophy (1993-1994) , worked in a college as a special needs assistant and learning support assistant (1994-1996) , worked as a residential manager for a home for many people with learning disabilities (1997-1998) , worked delivering basic skills in care , administration of medications and management practices to independent sector organisations (2001) , worked as a careworker and classroom assistant in a residential school for children with profound and multiple learning disabilities (1996-1997) and done various other temping work prior to working in field social work. (2002-2013)

For 9 years (2000-2009) I worked as a web development consultant for Northumbria University on a sessional basis developing narrative archives , ie online experiential accounts of this and that. I have interests in social constructionism and 'the narrative turn' since first studying it at degree level 10 years ago.

I have a particular piquant for the narrative puzzle. In 2015 I started a 2 year part-time MSC in computing science funded under section 117 aftercare via an individual budget and received 92% for my assignment on computing environments (UNIX Shell Scripting). I am a trustee for the charity Friends Action North East and do some voluntary work occasionally for a mental health advocacy charity.

my own disabilit(ies)

I was born with asthma and allergies to fish , eggs and nuts - a condition that left me debilitated a lot as a child with much time off from school during which i read a great deal !! In around 2002 I was diagnosed as being schizophrenic , though I prefer to define myself as a salient person. I have found some of my experiences to be illusional as well as what is classified as delusional when the interpretation is not known.