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....?

Christmas post

Happy Christmas to all!

Back home for a week or so over the Xmas period. Plan on posting a bit more in the New Year (let's call it one of my resolutions!). Did encounter a few homeless people while I was running around getting a few last minute Christmas presents but didn't get to have a long chat with any of them. One guy was Hungarian and didn't seem to speak much English....once we'd established where he was from, conversation proved virtually impossible. Threw him a few coins and went on my way.

Then I came across a youngish girl openly stopping passersby on Nassau street and she made no secret of why she was homeless. Told me she'd been in care and then went on the streets. Also told me that she'd been raped while on the streets and had a child and that was why she was begging- to get some money together for them. Looking back on our meeting,she told me all this in such a nonchalant, blasé sort of way that I wasn't sure whether to believe her and didn't really process the significance of the statement. In retrospect, assuming it was true (and from my limited knowledge of life on the streets) it could very easily be, it's a fairly shocking and traumatic thing to happen but just underlines the vulnerability of those who are homeless.

On an optimistic note, it's nice to see that so many people in Ireland really care about the issue of homelessness and are trying to do something about it. Was chatting to a couple of the organisers of a group of students from Belvedere College who were staging a sleep-out on O'Connell Street in Dublin in order to fundraise for Focus Ireland and the Fr. Peter McVerry Trust. Great way to foster civic responsibility and an awareness of social justice issues. Really nice, friendly bunch of guys too.Asked how much of the money raised went directly to the charities and they told me 100% which was reassuring to hear. Also restores your faith in humanity in general when you see people being proactive in this way. May be something I look at myself in 2012...spending a night on the streets.... After all, there's not much use writing/blogging about it if I've never experienced it myself, is there? Anyway, just a thought for now......Might see if I can join the Belvedere boys next year....

Down but not out

Yesterday evening I went out with the express intention of talking to another homeless person in order to update the blog as I haven't had a chance to post in a while.... I've been realising a couple of things as I go along with this project.....small things mainly and no doubt I'll learn a lot along the way too but a few major elements that have emerged already for me are a) the importance of that initial 'vibe' or feeling you get within minutes of talking to someone and b) what to say to someone to gain their trust and  c) the importance of personal safety, principally my own in this case since I'm working on my own on this.

I didn't have to lok very hard or for a long time and within minutes of getting into town, I met Jimmy  (*not his real name) on the Ha'penny Bridge beside the entrance to Temple Bar along the Quays. It's one of those spots that you are guaranteed to find someone tapping despite it being one of the most exposed (to the elements) bridges in Dublin and it seems like sheer madness at times for anyone to pick this spot to beg. However, I guess there's some logic to it as there's certainly plenty of footfall along it although you'd wonder how many people that cross it would actually stop to talk to or toss a few coins to the people begging/tapping on the bridge.

Anyway, I spotted Jimmy, who was sitting with his back against the bridge, immediately and asked him if he'd like to go to the Centra shop across the road which I'd scoped out earlier for a cup of tea/hot chocolate. I gave him what by now is becoming my 'spiel' ie. that I wanted to ask him a couple of questions, that I wasn't a member of the Garda Síochána or a journalist and that I simply wanted to talk to him and learn about his experience of homelessness for my blog.
Anyway, Jimmy clearly didn't have much else to do and must have figured that he'd nothing to lose by talking to me and agreed to come for a cup of tea with me pretty willingly although he did tell me he had to try and get into a hostel before 8 p.m. (seems this is roughly around the time they stop admitting people) and he'd have a 20 minute walk to get to the hostel so he'd have to go around twenty to 8. This suited me fine as I had a dance class at 8 anyway and was just killing time in a productive way, in a manner of speaking.

My first impressions of Jimmy were that he was young (by no means the youngest person I've ever seen tapping but young nonetheless), that he seemed fairly bright and together and that he was pretty forthcoming. I told him that I would not write about anything he didn't want me to mention and he assured me saying, "Don't worry, I'll let you know if any of the questions are too intrusive".  As we walked into the Centra cafe together  (me slightly nervous admittedly as it was the first time I'd ever gone for coffee with a homeless person), he spotted someone he knew at the coffee machine. As  we were pouring our tea, the person he knew (an older guy) greeted him and I though I heard him ask Jimmy " Are you looking?" As it turned out, I had heard correctly and Jimmy referred to it later on during our conversation when I asked him what the toughest aspect of being homeless was . He replied, "staying clean" and said "You heard what that guy asked me".

So Jimmy it seemed, was a former heroin addict. He told me he'd been clean a year and was on methadone and attending a clinic in Castle Street. He was from Swords and had been on heroin since he was 14 and was kicked out of home by his Ma as a result. He had been living with his on-off girlfriend (though it was now very definitely off) in Naas but had no friends in Dublin he could stay with. When I asked him about this, he said,"There are no friends on the streets, only acquaintances". From this I inferred that he'd more or less cut all ties with previous 'friends' whom may also have been addicts, which must be a difficult thing to do in some ways. When I told him that he seemed like a bright enough guy and asked him if he had ever worked or had a trade, he told me he spent 2 years training as a chef but didn't finish the training (he didn't elaborate on the reasons for this and I didn't ask but presumably  it was related to his heroin addiction). He would love to get a job now he said but it wasn't that easy. When I enquired as to whether he was able to claim any sort of welfare benefits, he told me that there was a homeless payment of some sort which he could claim. When I asked him what his worst experience of being homeless was, he told me about a night when he was attacked and beaten up by 3 guys who spotted him tapping outside of the pub they had been in. I was fairly shocked by this but guess it's kind of an 'occupational hazard' particularly here in Dublin. I enquired as to whether the men were staff working in the pub but he told me that they were just a couple of guys who'd been drinking in the pub....At this point in the conversation, Jimmy was making moves to go and reminded me that he had to try get into a hostel that night. I asked him what he did if he couldn't get in anywhere. He replied that he just walked around the streets all night as the streets were too dangerous to sleep on.....