London Homeless part 1

Hi Stevie

Glad to see you had another amazing day today :-)

Just wanted to tell you about this homeless guy I met today. This morning I walked across the park near me which meant I got on the tube from a different tube station to my home one.

So I was walking to the tube and I saw this guy who I'd sat down with sometime last year. But I was in a rush and late, so I walked past.

Then I thought of you and I realised it was an opportunity to talk to someone - on your behalf - who I know to be sober and coherent (and homeless).

So I went back and talked to him - Paul - for a good half hour.

Obviously I was going to try and help him out in the short term, but I was also thinking of you and what questions you'd wanted to ask.

He told me last time that he wouldn't go into hostel accommodation because they were full of drink and drugs. (he proudly carries a sign saying 'not on drugs'). This time he told me he'd had two weeks of respite at a Crisis-for-Christmas set up (where they're vigilent about not allowing any drink or drugs). He told me the guy that run it had agreed that he could leave the place at any point in his stay, and not loose his place - because if he saw someone with drink/drugs he had to get away from them.

So I asked him how he was coping and he said he was doing ok physically but that mentally, it was doing his head in and he was fragmenting.

He has a real strenth. He know where the services are that he can use. He goes to the crisis centre every Monday evening (they have lots of workshops there) where he does percussion as he finds that helps get rid of some of the frustration.

He had 18 months of counselling up to a year ago and said the therapist gave up on him, especially when he refused to be put on medication.

So he said the fact he couldn't get quiet time was driving him crazy. He said he won't go on tubes and doesn't like buses because he can't control the noise of the people around. I talked to him about changing the noises around him - and he said he was able to do that in cafes, but not buses - because he couldn't get out of a bus when he wanted to.

So he said what he needed was just to have 2 days with some quiet. I asked how much that would cost and he told me about a b&b in Hackney where he goes which has a woman who let's them stay on the cheap - and it's clean enough and he can close the door.

So I gave him enough for about 4 nights - just to give him some respite. He said it was a lifesaver - let's hope it is.

He also told me his strategy for stopping the stress headaches. He bangs the soft part of his hand repeatedly against his forehead and after a while the ring of headache goes to one spot in his forehead and that seems to be better.

I tried to get him to do some tapping (a kind of physical therapy I can do) but he didn't respond to that. I asked him to try and spot the direction of the feeling/sensation and told him how he could reverse it. That seemed to appeal to him and he said he would try that.

I asked him about the homeless in London and told him about you. He said you shouldn't be going around talking to people (he was just being protective). I told him you were from Glasgow. He agreed that would help (he's from Ireland originally). He said you want to watch out for the Poles as they'll just do you in. He told a story of a guy who was a reporter posing as one of them and they beat him senseless.

He said there were some like him, on the street and sober - for example the group that were in the Crisis place over Christmas.

See Part 2 - Click here

Posted by Stevie Kidd on 22 January 2010 in : KDS Training, KDS Youth Training, Kidd's Distribution Services - KDS Distribution, Personal Enhancement, Training corporate, Training employability

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