Wednesday, 28 March 2012

What Dublin Simon is really about.....

Last Friday (16th March) I started volunteering in the Dublin Simon office as part of the Learning and Development team. Since I don't work Fridays anyway, I figured I might as well do something useful with my time and that it might assist with this blog in order to get a greater insight into the services available for the homeless in Dublin.

It was a varied and interesting first day. I was introduced to the other staff in the office, sent on an errand down to "Eason's" on O'Connell Street, made a few phone calls to service users who had registered for a course and attended a "team meeting" which consisted of my new boss, another girl in the office and me. I learned a new acronym which was much bandied about the office- SLI (pronounced SLEE). It stands for Support to Live Independently which is a large part of what Dublin Simon Community is about.....helping those who are homeless to get off the streets and enabling them to make that transition to living independently. I learned also about a number of the education projects that Dublin Simon are providing for homeless service users.  Naturally, all courses are provided free of charge to service users and are aimed specifically at them so as well as getting the opportunity to learn a new skill, they have the opportunity to engage with other homeless people in a supportive, non judgemental environment.  One  of the courses was a course in Creative Writing, another was a Coaching and Life Skills course (which I think involved some aspects of CV writing and job skills) and another was centred on Health and Wellbeing and involved teaching participants about basic health and fitness. The first 2 classes would as well as teaching participants about the importance of looking after their health and fitness, allow participants to learn how to use some of the machines in a gym and have  a fitness class.

Around lunch time, myself and Joanne (*not her real name) who like me is also working on a voluntary basis in the office, left the office and took a bus to one of the housing projects on North Circular Road. This was one of the "supported housing " projects where a number of homeless service users lived with members of the Dublin Simon team who were there to care for them and support them.  It was a mixed housing project with men and women sleeping in separate buildings in their own rooms but with communal areas such as the kitchen and an outdoor area with tables and benches. I guessed there were perhaps only 15-20 service users in total living there.  All of them appeared to have addiction problems and/or mental health issues. As soon as we walked into the reception area, we met with a guy who seemed to be in charge of the building who was talking to a teenage boy in the corner and trying to persuade him to see a doctor about something.  The boy seemed very reluctant and didn't say much .As it turned out, it wasn't a boy at all but a girl!  Her face was quite small and very pale and drawn looking. She looked to be almost anaemic and she was wearing a hoodie with the hood up over her head which obscured her features and made her look quite masculine.  At one point, she lifted up her trousers leg to show something to the guy who was talking to her and I got quite a shock. Her whole lower leg seemed to be swollen and contused and to my inexperienced eyes, it looked as if she had gangrene setting in. At any rate, it was obvious that she had a wound of some sort that had become severely infected and it was for that reason that the man in the reception was trying to persuade her to see a doctor. Later on, I asked my colleague what could possibly have caused that awful wound on her leg and she told me that it sometimes happened as a result of injecting- wounds then sometimes became infected.

 Our reason for being there on that day was to meet a tutor who was running a cookery class for the residents. None of them appeared to have signed up for this course but  it was a way of trying to engage with some of the residents through cooking and teaching a life skill at the same time. The lady who was running the class seemed experienced and sensitive to her clients needs. Her approach was quite gentle and patient and if someone didn't want to help chop vegetables or stir the bolognese ingredients in the saucepan, well then, that was perfectly alright. Only 4 or 5 residents showed any willingness to participate in helping cook at all and it was immediately obvious to me that motivation was a significant problem amongst the residents, probably due to the fact that so many of them were battling much more significant issues. The girl with the contused leg seemed to be very unwell- she admitted as much herself and was pale, reticent and showed an aversion to chopping garlic. The smell of it seemed to be putting her off and she refused to eat any of the dinner afterwards saying that she had no appetite despite having eaten nothing all day. Another thing I noticed was that for some of the participants, it seemed to be their first time ever cooking anything as they seemed to have no idea how to peel carrots or chop vegetables and their hand movements were slow and clumsy. As a teacher, I immediately thought " fine motor problems"! It made me wonder what they had eaten all their lives and how they had come this far without learning such basic skills that the average person takes for granted. There was a good chance a couple of fingernails landed in with the bolognese ingredients so there was no way I was sampling it afterwards!!!! Observing one resident eat his dinner later, I thought to myself that his movements were that of an old man's. It took an age for him to bring his fork up to his mouth and he seemed to have a tremor in his hand. According to my colleague, the slow movements and poor coordination are often a side effect  of shooting up heroin and when I saw the same guy's face, it confirmed that theory as his eyes were practically rolling around his head and he couldn't focus at all. As we were leaving later on that afternoon, he was staggering in the hallway and attempting to stand up straight but was unable to and two of the staff had to assist him. Two or three of the residents did show some interest in cooking and one of them, a sweet lady who was an alcoholic,seemed to have some experience of cooking and seemed willing to chat about food. She soon got tired however and went up to her room for a lie-down as she too wasn't feeling very well and had a bad coughing fit which led to her having to be helped up to her room by a staff member. Before we left, I noticed a guy in the kitchen whom I recalled meeting when I was working on the Soup Run a number of years ago. He didn't seem to recognise me but I recognised him as he was quite a memorable character and I recalled chatting to him about books as he was always reading anytime you met him when he was out tapping. He appeared to have lost a leg in the interval and was in a wheelchair but I was glad to see that at least he was no longer on the streets and sleeping rough.

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