Yesterday's visit to the homeless housing unit in the NCR was an eye opener. I guess I am a little naive and idealistic when it comes to dealing with real life at times. Almost every member of staff I've met in Dublin Simon Community so far has been lovely but yesterday I realised that just because you work in the area of homelessness, doesn't necessarily mean that you are a nice person or suited to the job. I guess you could say the same about any job really but I've always thought that certain fields, particularly the charity/NGO sector attracted a certain type of individual. In a nutshell, my impression was that that particular individual tended to be fairly idealistic, liberal, altrusitically minded, nonconformist and generally a caring and empathetic person. Not quite Mother Teresa but not far off. I got quite the shock yesterday to discover that that is not always the case.
Let me elaborate.....Myself and S.got the bus to the NCR yesterday in the afternoon to visit the project as per usual. The course topic for that day was sleep and issues around sleep-too much of it, too little, insomnia etc. . . S was actually delivering the course and I was interested to see how she would carry it off as I'm hoping to pick up a few tips and deliver a course of some description myself at some point.
Am getting to know some of the service users a little bit at this stage, they're beginning to recognise me too which is nice and we're now on first name terms. We've progressed beyond shy smiles and curious glances to beginning to engage in conversation.I'm discovering the more I see of them, the more I like them and the more I hope to engage with them and earn their trust. So far my experience has been really positive and I've found most of the homeless service users in this particular residence to be very friendly,humble, down to earth and good humoured people.
S's delivery of the course struck me as a little bit unstructured and not particularly well organised but she has a great personality and a good rapport with the service users so she was able to pull it off. The same people appear to attend all the courses and the 3 ladies who attended the sexual health talk were there as well as 3 of the men that I'd seen before. Two people in particular were particularly garrulous and didn't need much encouragement to talk about their problems.One of the men said something interesting at the talk. He pointed out that when he used to be homeless and sleeping on the streets, all hell could be breaking loose around him and he would still sleep like a baby whereas since he'd moved into sheltered housing, he had greater trouble sleeping and found that now he was sensitive to the slightest noise. A dripping tap would bother him so much that he would not be able to get to sleep unless he had turned it off.
I really felt for one of the ladies who is an alcoholic but has been off the drink for a while now. However, she's having a really tough time lately not only because she was off the drink but also because of insomnia which was really affecting her mood and making her cranky and irritable. The problem seemed to be the fact of all of them living virtually on top of one another in the shelter. She was on a bottom floor and was unable to sleep because of one of the other residents who was just above her. According to her, she could hear everything the resident above her was doing-watching TV, moving furniture, listening to the radio etc and as a result she was not able to sleep with all the noise. It was easy to see that she was at the end of her tether and as someone who suffers from insomnia occasionally myself, I could really relate to her problems. I asked her if she'd spoken to the manager and if there was a possibility of moving to another room but she explained that she'd asked several times but nothing had happened. She'd also spoken to the resident in question and asked her to keep the noise down but to no avail.
After the course and before we left for the day, an unpleasant(ish) incident occurred. S was talking to M, one of the more senior members of staff at the housing project and I was standing beside S chatting to a girl who was a full time volunteer in the shelter. I said to the volunteer that one of the ladies had asked to move room and as I spoke, the lady in question appeared and a sort of confrontation between herself and M (the senior member of staff) occurred. She must have realised that she was being discussed and addressed her complaint to M, explaining that she couldn't sleep because of the person above her.M responded in a very aggressive manner implying that that was not the case at all and that she (the service user) was overreacting and exagerrating. She practically implied that the homeless resident was nuts and that she had nothing to be complaining about. Not being fully conversant with the facts, I didn't say anything but from what had been said by this lady during the course when she was explaining her issue with the resident above her, I was inclined to believe her and sympathise with her. As far as I could tell, the issue was not whether or not the resident was exagerrating about her problem with the tenant above her, but rather the fact that the room situation wasn't working. Surely the management could just move her to another room temporarily at least and see if that alleviated the problem? I have to admit I was really shocked by the way that M,(this senior member of staff) spoke to the resident and her aggressive attitude. I had never met this member of staff before but she came across almost as a Nurse Ratchid character from the movie, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". My blood was boiling as we were leaving for the day as I felt someone like her should not be working with vulnerable homeless clients. I guess maybe I should give her the benefit of the doubt, maybe she was having a bad day or had her own problems but I have to say that she didn't come across as someone who was particularly approachable or empathetic. It made me wonder what the standard of care was like in other housing projects and residential settings for the homeless, the elderly and those with physical disabilities or mental illness....food for thought.
Let me elaborate.....Myself and S.got the bus to the NCR yesterday in the afternoon to visit the project as per usual. The course topic for that day was sleep and issues around sleep-too much of it, too little, insomnia etc. . . S was actually delivering the course and I was interested to see how she would carry it off as I'm hoping to pick up a few tips and deliver a course of some description myself at some point.
Am getting to know some of the service users a little bit at this stage, they're beginning to recognise me too which is nice and we're now on first name terms. We've progressed beyond shy smiles and curious glances to beginning to engage in conversation.I'm discovering the more I see of them, the more I like them and the more I hope to engage with them and earn their trust. So far my experience has been really positive and I've found most of the homeless service users in this particular residence to be very friendly,humble, down to earth and good humoured people.
S's delivery of the course struck me as a little bit unstructured and not particularly well organised but she has a great personality and a good rapport with the service users so she was able to pull it off. The same people appear to attend all the courses and the 3 ladies who attended the sexual health talk were there as well as 3 of the men that I'd seen before. Two people in particular were particularly garrulous and didn't need much encouragement to talk about their problems.One of the men said something interesting at the talk. He pointed out that when he used to be homeless and sleeping on the streets, all hell could be breaking loose around him and he would still sleep like a baby whereas since he'd moved into sheltered housing, he had greater trouble sleeping and found that now he was sensitive to the slightest noise. A dripping tap would bother him so much that he would not be able to get to sleep unless he had turned it off.
I really felt for one of the ladies who is an alcoholic but has been off the drink for a while now. However, she's having a really tough time lately not only because she was off the drink but also because of insomnia which was really affecting her mood and making her cranky and irritable. The problem seemed to be the fact of all of them living virtually on top of one another in the shelter. She was on a bottom floor and was unable to sleep because of one of the other residents who was just above her. According to her, she could hear everything the resident above her was doing-watching TV, moving furniture, listening to the radio etc and as a result she was not able to sleep with all the noise. It was easy to see that she was at the end of her tether and as someone who suffers from insomnia occasionally myself, I could really relate to her problems. I asked her if she'd spoken to the manager and if there was a possibility of moving to another room but she explained that she'd asked several times but nothing had happened. She'd also spoken to the resident in question and asked her to keep the noise down but to no avail.
After the course and before we left for the day, an unpleasant(ish) incident occurred. S was talking to M, one of the more senior members of staff at the housing project and I was standing beside S chatting to a girl who was a full time volunteer in the shelter. I said to the volunteer that one of the ladies had asked to move room and as I spoke, the lady in question appeared and a sort of confrontation between herself and M (the senior member of staff) occurred. She must have realised that she was being discussed and addressed her complaint to M, explaining that she couldn't sleep because of the person above her.M responded in a very aggressive manner implying that that was not the case at all and that she (the service user) was overreacting and exagerrating. She practically implied that the homeless resident was nuts and that she had nothing to be complaining about. Not being fully conversant with the facts, I didn't say anything but from what had been said by this lady during the course when she was explaining her issue with the resident above her, I was inclined to believe her and sympathise with her. As far as I could tell, the issue was not whether or not the resident was exagerrating about her problem with the tenant above her, but rather the fact that the room situation wasn't working. Surely the management could just move her to another room temporarily at least and see if that alleviated the problem? I have to admit I was really shocked by the way that M,(this senior member of staff) spoke to the resident and her aggressive attitude. I had never met this member of staff before but she came across almost as a Nurse Ratchid character from the movie, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". My blood was boiling as we were leaving for the day as I felt someone like her should not be working with vulnerable homeless clients. I guess maybe I should give her the benefit of the doubt, maybe she was having a bad day or had her own problems but I have to say that she didn't come across as someone who was particularly approachable or empathetic. It made me wonder what the standard of care was like in other housing projects and residential settings for the homeless, the elderly and those with physical disabilities or mental illness....food for thought.
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