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A few days ago I saw an ad on Facebook, paid by Västerås municipality. The ad was aimed at students and offered the opportunity to earn extra points for their CV by staying god man. I shared the ad in my feed with a comment that I think it's completely insane. Several who commented thought exactly the opposite.
For those who Do not know, so is a good man (or a trustee) a person who undertakes to manage another person's finances. These are people who, for various reasons, are unable to pay their bills themselves, or have other needs that have to do with, among other things, finances. This can be a very large variation in what needs there are, and why.
Some have need someone who pays the bills because they are old and do not know how to behave around a computer, let alone the Internet bank. Others because they have, for example, mental illness which means that for periods they are unable to take care of the most basic needs, such as paying the bills.
A good man may have multiple rights, and a trustee the more.
What it really is is about such a person being given the right to go in and control and set in someone else's life. As principal (person in need of support) you have slightly different rights, depending on whether it is a good man or trustee you have. The former does not have as great opportunities to control and set, but a trustee can do basically anything without having anything to say about.
So it is quite big stuff it's a matter of. We're talking about people's lives. Depending on the condition the principal is in, it is not at all a given that you know what the good man or steward is doing. As a principal, you are therefore fairly exposed in this position, even if it is a support.
I have, with my bipolar diagnosis, himself has been in incredibly poor condition. I have managed to ruin my life in absurdity, and for a time I considered myself to have a very great need for a good man. I've had three, of which two for different reasons and in different ways did not do their job very well. And then they were still adults, one of whom had long experience as a good man.
To put students Taking care of other people's finances is a risk. Not because I think students would cheat or deliberately make mistakes. But it's not just about numbers on a piece of paper and login details to someone's Internet bank.
A student can be both smart, knowledgeable and driven. What a student often does not have, However, is life experience and empathy of the kind that may be needed in the role of a good man. While it is common for many older people who for one reason or another are no longer able to take care of their finances, there are many others who need the same support and help.
During that time I myself had a good husband, there were many things that were very complicated with my finances that a few years earlier had been completely non-existent. There was a huge amount to sort out, and believe me when I say that – I did not want a student to stir in that pot. It did not go well, despite the good man I had just then.
Today it is many who have managed to ruin their lives to a very high degree. That a student should go in and sort it out feels in my eyes extremely insecure.
But it is not only on behalf of the principals I see risks with this. Västerås municipality's advertisement presents this as an easy way to earn an extra penny and get a nice CV. That can certainly be true – but what happens if this student makes a mistake? What happens if the student is reported to the Board of Supervisors, or somewhere else (think YES or similar)?
I know that at least the municipality of Västerås considers itself to have good knowledge to assist its good men, but in my experience the said good men hold their backs rather than help the principals. So there will be some kind of strange conflict of interest that is not entirely ok. I myself have been in a position where I asked ÖFN for help but did not get it because my then good husband did not ask for it. It ended with a series of reports from my side about how ÖFN handles its principals, and why good men are allowed to behave a little anyway if it does not serve the principal.
Then we have another question about this with principals. That being said, was not just old, demented people who need good men or trustees. It can be people with difficulty, mental diagnoses that are not automatically manageable. It can be severely criminal, it may be about unaccompanied refugee children – or so many other variants of people with needs that exceed normal needs.
And even if I fully agree that students are smart, driven, knowledgeable and so on, so I also believe that they do not have the skills required to be able to handle this in a good way. The understanding of how a situation can arise, which chain reactions can trigger different actions, is not at all automatically there in a student. It takes life experience, and my personal opinion is that one needs to have it to even be considered for this task.
I realize that there are many who are of a completely different opinion than me. It is OK. But on the other hand I have both many and long opinions about this with good men / managers and how above all Västerås municipality (because this is where I live) handles people in need of support and help. If it is not clear, is there no flattering view I have of the municipality.
I think I will take and write a post that only focuses on the dangers of sauce control, and why the Swedish feel-sorry-for-mentality is so extremely dangerous. I have a lot to say about that, so it might be a fun post (lucky I'm so easygoing).
But to go back to that with good men; instead of recruiting students for the role of good men, Västerås municipality should put an end to its own mentality and instead start using professional good men and trustees. Because it actually exists – here in town, in addition. But because Västerås municipality has such an extremely strange attitude to most things, so you refuse to deal with professionals (which also proved in the question of housing support).
On hearing about the matter!