Getting fruity with the homeless & comparing projects

Fun with Fruits
Another well overdue blog post. So have been working away very happily with Dublin Simon Community on Fridays and really enjoying the work on the whole I have to say. Meeting the service users and interacting with them and getting to know them a little bit is undoubtedly the best part of the role. Last Friday, myself and S went to the project on Canal Street in the afternoon where S was delivering a training session on how to make home made cosmetics using natural ingredients (mainly fruit!). The emphasis wasn't so much on education as having a bit of fun and the session definitely lended itself to that in a big way as we  mashed up strawberries and bananas, avocados and yoghurt and discussed our pores and wrinkles and how to look 10 years younger. We did of course have to join in and apply some coffee and coacoa masks to our faces!
The Canal Street project
 This was my second time visiting this particular housing project and I have a very positive impression of the place and those service users living there.Canal Street is a low support housing project by which I mean that the service users/residents living there are effectively living independently and are capable of living on their own and looking after themselves. They are relatively stable and all are drug and alcohol free.  On this visit, only 3 service users attended and participated in our course. We were informed by a member of staff that most of the others were not there that day as they were out and about or had various appointments with doctors etc. This in itself was encouraging to me as it suggested that the residents living there were stable enough to function in the real world and were motivated enough to carry out day to day activities, somthing which I noticed was somewhat lacking among the service users I met at the NCR, which is a very different place entirely and caters for service users with significant drug and alcohol addiction issues as well as mental health problems.

On my first visit I had really felt encouraged when I met a particular resident who was very gregarious,articulate, bright and motivated. He spoke openly about his previous experience of  being homeless and having to be very particular about the bushes he would select to sleep under and he also talked about a full time one year course he was doing with the Gaeity School of Acting, which he was really enjoying. He also spent quite a lot of time at the gym as was evident from his noticeably large and well developed biceps. He was a wonderful example of a man who had been homeless who did not fit the stereotype (of drug user, alcoholic etc) and was making something of himself.  The other residents I met were lovely as well and included a Scottish guy from Glasgow and two women who participated in the course that day (cookery and healthy eating) but were fairly quiet spoken. You would never guess to look at any of them that they had once been homeless and (more likely than not) sleeping rough somewhere. Which just goes to show that homelessness is something that could happen to any of us.

The particular building this project is housed in is by far the nicest of all the places I've seen and there's even a small outdoor patio/garden area which is a real sun trap when there's any bit of sunshine and it's quite peaceful sitting on the bench with the windchimes and birdsong in the background. The residents all look fairly "normal" and are clean and tidy and reasonably healthy looking, in stark contrast to some of the service users I've seen in other projects who look like they have been sleeping rough and/or have an addiction of sorts.

Harcourt Street Emergency Shelter
I visited a "wet"shelter off Harcourt Street one of the Fridays I was working and it was a totally different kettle of fish. I was waiting at the reception to meet B who was going to show me around and tell me a little bit about the project and was witness to one of the staff getting abused by one of the service users. Certainly a place where you would need a thick skin to work there!   B showed me some of the bedrooms which seemed cramped, dirty and untidy with clothing strewn everywhere and the bedclothes unmade. There was also a strong odour of drink and sweat, a heady combination! There were also "wet"rooms where service users could watch TV and have a few cans while they were at  it. There was also another living room area where service users could relax without being surrounded by other service users who were using or drinking. Needless to say all of the residents were watching TV in the "wet"room and the "dry"room was empty at that hour of the day. B also showed me the doctor's surgery  from where he (it was a 'he' in this case) dispensed methadone and the needle exchange press whereby service users who were using could deposit used needles in a secure and hygienic box and exchange them for a new needle. It occurred to me that whatever you might think of  emergency hostels or homeless shelters allowing clients to shoot up, at least  it was with a view to harm reduction and the knowledge that homeless drug users could shoot up in relative safety, using clean and sterilised needles.

Thought for the day...
One thing that I have learned through my (limited) dealings with the homeless  people I have encountered in the last few months is how much they are just ordinary people with ordinary problems.  There seems to be a perception amongst some quarters (not naming names here but I can think of a few people with this perception!) that homeless people are all drug addicts and alcoholics and that they are lazy people who don't want to work, dangerous and to be feared. If anything, I have found that the reverse is true. While there are undoubtedly many homeless people with drug addiction, mental health and alcohol issues, there are also those who don't have any addiction problems but have merely ended up homeless by virtue of circumstances. This perception was summed up for me recently when I spoke to M from Sligo, a homeless guy in his late 20s or thereabouts who I stopped to chat to when he was stopping passersyby and asking them for money. I didn't give him any money but since I recognised him, I stopped to talk to him for a few minutes and asked him where he was planning on staying for the night. He was very personable and told me that he remembered me also because I was "calm" and "down to earth" and that unlike other members of the public whom he stopped on occasion, I didn't seem to look around nervously when he was talking to me. He said that they seemed to be "afraid" of him simply because he was homeless.

Nurse Ratchid in the Homeless Shelter

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.

Homeless sevice users and Sexual health

Yesterday a tutor from Dublin AIDS allowance came to the housing project on North Circular Road to give a talk on sexual health to the service users there. It was fascinating to say the least, not least from my own point of view.

The tutor was excellent, very professional and thorough while managing to be entertaining, approachable, relaxed and open at the same time. You quickly felt at ease and her manner inspired confidence and trust. You knew immediately you could ask her anything without embarassment or fear of being judged. Considering that there were approximately 28 people in total living in this house, I was surprised at the low turnout for the talk, considering the subject matter! Only 4 service users in total attended,one awfully obese lady had to be almost literally dragged from bed (where I understand she spends most of her time) and one reluctant gentleman sat in on the talk halfway through the presentation, just at the point where the tutor was demonstrating the symptoms of syphilis on the screen. Nasty viewing! I almost thought I was going to lose my breakfast and could barely look at the screen!

I observed the ladies who had attended the talk throughout the presentation and one thing that struck me was how streetwise they were in many ways, yet how naive when it came to their own sexual health. I guessed that none of them had ever had ever had any sort of talk about sexual health as a child or teenager and their knowledge was gained from pieced together anecdotes, gossip and chat and from painful personal experience. Many of the facts about the various STDs including AIDS were news to me and I had questions of my own but it was obvious from the questions that one lady asked that many myths still abounded such as the possibility of catching an STD from a toilet seat.

I noticed the girl I'd seen the last time I had been there-the girl who had the awful, weeping sore on her leg. She was looking much better than the last time I'd seen her and looked alert and "with it". Incidentally, her leg was much improved although still incredibly swollen looking. She must have been to see a doctor in the interval between my first visit to the home and today. She seemed interested in the presentation and participated actively asking questions. Of the 3 ladies who attended, she was the youngest and seemed to have the most knowledge of some of the STDs. As it turned out, she was speaking from personal experience as she informed the tutor that she herself had Hepatitis C. I know next to nothing about Hepatitis C but from my Google research, it seems it primarily is spread by blood-to-blood contact associated with intravenous drug use.  The same girl  matter of factly referred to the fact that she'd had an abortion at one point but it seemed from what she said that she hadn't really understood what had happened to her or what the doctors had been doing to her at the time.....it also appeared from what she was saying that she had also undergone a smear test but hadn't understood what this was or why she'd had one.

The ladies were polite and interested and particularly enjoyed the practical demonstrations, especially when the tutor showed them how to put a condom on properly (things have moved on from bananas it seems, she had a dildo for the occasion!) and passed around a female condom (which I'd never seen myself) and some scented mouth guards for use when  performing oral sex! There was plenty of eye rolling from the gentleman who attended, some lewd (but harmless) jokes directed his way and lots of laughter.

All in all, an interesting day.....

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.

Homelessness and Drug Addiction

I recently attended a course with Dublin Simon Community on drug addiction and homelessness which was fascinating. A lot of the homeless in Ireland have drug or alcohol addiction problems of one sort or another but that is by no means the case for all homeless people you encounter on the streets. Some people inceredibly, manage to avoid going down that route which always amazes me as I'm sure if the positions were reversed and I was to wind up homeless, I would resort to whatever means of temporary escape was available to me.

The temptation must be overwhelming at times as there are no shortage of drug users staying in the hostels and on the streets and drugs are readily available if you want  them.

Anyway, the talk was given by a man involved in training who had worked in homeless shelters in the UK and as such, he had plenty of first hand experience of dealing with people with drug and alcohol addictions. One thing that struck me from what he had to say, was how difficult it actually is to come off a drug like heroin in this country. Seemingly, once a person makes the decision to go off heroin, it can take up to 6 months to be admitted to a detox programme . Six months!!!! What use is six months to someone whose life has fallen apart and who genuinely wants to get off the drug? For economic reasons, methadone  which it seems is an equally addictive drug, is generally prescribed to users trying to come off heroin.
According to what the trainer said, once a user is admitted to a detox programme,  the first criteria is that he or she has to test positive for opiates. This is done by means of  3 (supervised!)urine samples. Users are then generally prescribed methadone. Contrary to what I thought, some people can remain on an 80 ml dose of methadone for ever, as the drug is so difficult to come off that this may be what is required to keep them stable and capable of living a somewhat "normal"life. If a user comes off it too quickly, they can easily relapse.

Pregnant and homeless

Another well overdue post....

So there I am after a leisurely day in town and a cinema date with friends and I meet Shelly(*not her real name) on O'Connell bridge. A sweet little slip of a thing with her back to the wall and cowering from the driving rain in her sleeping bag. I stoppped and asked her if she would like a cup of something hot to drink given the night that was in it and she assured me she was fine, she didn't really drink tea or coffee and anyway, she'd just gotten soup and sandwiches off the Simon Community who had passed by. She told me she was 3 months pregnant and the only thing she was eating at the moment was Cadbury "Flake"bars and drinking Capri-Suns.... I asked her if she wanted to get out of the rain for a bit and go to a cafe just to get warm but she said she was waiting for her boyfriend (also homeless) to come back from Temple Bar where he too was tapping to get enough money for a hostel that night. They'd met 2 years ago on the streets and neither of them did drugs. Her mother was a heroin addict and was dead and  Shelly herself had been on the streets since the age of six. I asked her how much it was for the hostel and she told me 8 euros which didnt seem like an awful lot to me but on such a wet night, people were just hurrying home to their nice warm houses and it seemed unlikely that many would stop. Susie told me herself that her boyfriend had more luck "tapping" for some reason. He wasn't embarrassed to ask people for money but she was. I asked her if she'd slept out much and she told me she had but that herself and her boyfriend were trying to get into a "permanent" hostel ("permanent" being 6 months). She mentioned a place called Beech House (a more long term emergency hostel) which apparently wasn't very nice and said that herself and her boyfriend were trying to find somewhere to rent where a month's deposit wasn't required. She also said that lately it seemed much harder to get a place in a hostel due to the fact that there were now more homeless and more "foreigners". From the way she said this, she didn't seem resentful about it and it didn't seem like she was being xenophobic, she was simply stating a fact.

I gave her a few euros and went on my way to my nice cosy home.

Fleeting meetings

Well the New Year is well and truly over and I'm finally getting around to posting again. Had a bit of excitement there over the last few weeks when I got offered an administrative internship (unpaid) with the Dublin Simon Community. Had made up my mind that I was going to take it as I felt I needed a bit of a change only to find out that I wasn't eligible for it because I didn't fulfill all the requirements of the scheme which was called Job Bridge and was aimed at those unemployed for a period of 3 months or longer. The fact that I have been doing some substitute teaching in the meantime to keep the wolf from the door apparently invalidates me as it would mean I would need to start the whole process of 'eligibility' again and ensure that I do not work even one day of the 13 week minimum that I must stay 'unemployed'!
Crazy huh? In a way am slightly relieved though as I've gotten rather fond of the regular paycheck and wasn't looking forward to living on bread and butter which I definitely would have been if I had taken up the internship....Anyway, maybe it wasn't destined to be....In the meantime, I'm hoping to have some involvement with Dublin Simon in another capacity, perhaps it will have to be on a voluntary basis.


I digress.....

So I havent met any homeless people in the last few weeks and last night, without even trying, I came across 2! One guy was youngish, in his late teens or early 20s and was standing outside the International Bar with a paper cup asking passersby for money. Normally, I'm not a fan of this direct aproach, if anything I'm less inclined to give money but I'd just come out of a meditation class and guess I was feeling extra compassionate and in harmony with the universe as I stopped to chat to him and ended up giving him the contents of my wallet, which amounted to 5 euros. He was delighted with this and very appreciative and told me he was on his way to get a bus to Newbridge where he was staying in a hostel. He didn't need any encouragement to volunteer information and after telling me his name, told me that his brother had died some time ago and he hadn't taken it well and had 'gone on the drink' which resulted in him ending up homeless. Now he was sleeping in hostels, he had 'slept out' a few times in Dublin but wouldn't do it again and hoped that someday he would get a place of his own and would get to do "normal things" and be "just like everyone else."

After our brief chat, I walked on in the direction of my busstop and then spotted a guy on crutches trying to bed down for the night on some flattened out cardboard sheets in a doorway on Dame Street. The doorway was far too narrow for him and it was obvious he wasn't going to be able to fit so he came back onto the street and I stopped him. It transpired he was from Latvia and spoke very little English. I tried to talk to him but quickly realised that it was pretty futile given that he didn't understand a word I was saying. The best I could do for him was buy him a cup of tea and banana and I wrote down the name of Dublin Simon Community and Focus Ireland on a piece of paper for him and told him  (via gestures and pointing) to go to them and see if they could help him.

I walked away thinking about how his situation highlighted the importance of learning the language of the country in which you live and how his inability to speak English was perhaps a large contributory factor to his being homeless ....wonder if any of the homeless agencies employ interpreters to deal with non national homeless people they come across....?