Monthly Archives: October 2007

Addiction

Just an addict.

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He/she is “just an addict” is an attitude far to prevalent in our society because so often underneath the addict lies a whole other world or person.

Based on my experiences and observations I have come to the conclusion that if we want to be efficient and effective in dealing with addiction and homelessness we need to move away from current practices and towards the best practices in the field of mental health. This will require adopting a much longer view of treatment and recovery; in many ways adopting a much more holistic view of what constituted recovery and being healthy.

I knew someone while he was in his addiction, saw him off to treatment, back from treatment and as he struggled with sobriety and dealing with his mental illness sober and without the use of illegal drugs. It is and was an incredibly painful struggle for him, and in some ways for me.

I know just what a mess his head is in because my head was in just such a mess not that many years ago and I have to admire his tenacity in staying sober and not using drugs to escape what is going on in his mind. I am thankful that the way my head works would not permit me to seek escape through mind-altering substances. Perhaps even more thankful that experiences in my youth had taught me that for me, unlike most, there was no escape into oblivion via drugs.

This is the struggle almost all of the homeless and addicts face in getting their lives back on track and why we need to begin using a long term mental health recovery model to be effective and efficient.

Experience had lead me to the conclusion that we had to change the way we think about, plan and deliver services to the homeless. Still I was blown away by the personal store told by a new friend, who when I asked if I could relate her story in my writing said if it would help someone I was welcome to post it on billboards around the lower mainland.

She was a heroin addict, one of those viewed as “just an addict”. The first time she cleaned up she fell back into addiction. The second time she cleaned up she stayed clean and thus had to face her inner demons sober and without heroin.

Obsessive/compulsive disorder and agoraphobia, can I ever relate. Maybe it was hearing in her story of the struggle we shared with these mental illnesses that struck such a cord with me. Once again I could only be thankful that mind-altering drugs was not a route that promised me escape from my mental demons and so I had avoided addiction.

Listening to her story was wrenching, illuminating and life affirming. But it left me more convinced than ever that we need to change our way of thinking, planning and focusing on addiction recovery. It was supporting to find in conversation that she too felt that we needed a much longer term, more mental illness recovery model in haw we approach and deal with addiction.

Perhaps the most telling and thought provoking statement she made in reference to addiction was “…its less painful”. Heroin addiction, being a heroin addict was less painful than dealing with her mental illness. I wonder how many of those who would have judged her “just an addict” would have the intestinal fortitude to deal with those mental demons that come with mental illness without escaping into addiction?

We need to change. We know our old and current approaches are not resulting in attaining effective and efficient outcomes for the homeless, the addicted. To just mindlessly continue doing what we have done in the past is insane behaviour, even more insane is to do more of what is not working.

It is time for leadership willing to embrace change, risk and new ideas to be applied to helping those suffering the blight of homelessness and/or addiction.

Uncategorized

Be as a drop of rain…

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I am getting to old for homelessness or perhaps having a bed to sleep in spoiled me. Either way my new living arrangements have me stiffer than the proverbial board, feeling over 100 years old and moving very sloooooooooooow.

I admit I was definitely remiss in not focusing on making sure I got a station wagon or van during my sojourn indoors – and a laptop computer. I suppose I should have kept my priorities focused on the car and computer and not let things like classes, earning certifications, working, volunteering and pursuing mental health distract me from preparations for being on the street again.

With our out of balance housing market and economy it is a fact of life that more and more people, many of them working poor, are going to experience homelessness for at least some period(s) of time.

In fact we are now and have been for a while seeing even people with full time jobs who do not earn enough to pay all their bills because increasing housing costs have consumed a larger and larger portion of their disposable income. The working poor have the additional burden that their jobs prevent them from getting to the food bank to be able to save on food costs and therefore have more money available for housing.

As a society we can behave in our normal manner ignoring the problem, letting it worsen into crisis, having politicians and pundits make political footballs out of the matter etc. OR we could try a new approach – rational behaviour. Personally I am solidly in favour of acknowledging reality and behaving rationally as I have no wish to inflict on or share homelessness with anyone.

I admit I do not have a nice neat solution, probably because there isn’t one. From the Tao of James: always be suspicious of anyone who claims nice neat solutions to complex problems that involve people – they are lying or delusional.

Affordable housing is just such a complex problem. But by starting to work on it sooner rather than later, by being open-minded and flexible we can avoid having more and more citizens thrown onto the streets.

So as you prepare to sit down to eat or are going to bed or are listening to the rain pound down – ask yourself what you can do or better yet will do about addressing this question of affordable housing. There are lots of little actions that can be taken to help, remember little actions all add up. And a good idea shared or put into action will spread.

We all know rain/water can wear away mountains. It does not do this in a massive wall of water but through countless little drops falling over time in different places. For affordable housing and other “too big” problems if many of us choose to be as that single drop of rain, we can and will wear away the “mountains” our inaction has made many issues into.

Homeless, Municipal

Homeless and Maxine Wilson, Mayor of Coquitlam

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I must acknowledge that this is not my writing but that of Fred Johns of Something Cool News (http://www.somethingcool.ca/). it was just such an interesting piece I felt that as well as putting it on the Other People’s Words page it needed to be on View From the Street.

In order to remain true to the editorial comment flavour of the page: Oh what we could accomplsih if Abbotsford had such a Mayor!

At first, he’s just another man sitting in the trash. His face is layered in dirt, his clothes are in even worse shape and judging by his choice of associates, he is a man who has truly hit rock bottom. Sitting on a log near Coquitlam River, he is sandwiched between a woman who seems to be constantly twitching and another man who is clearly drunk. And yet something separates this man from his company – his eyes seem slightly more vibrant and for a moment, it seems almost like he doesn’t belong here.

That’s because he doesn’t. (Indeed, does anyone?) This man has a home, an apartment somewhere – or so he says. He admits he used to call this forest home, but those days are behind him. He boasts that he is one of the lucky ones that escaped this life of despair, but has ties here still which brings him back to his former stomping grounds from time to time. But the real surprise comes when he is asked how he got his house. He smiles and then says proudly, “The Mayor got it for me.”

As this conversation is taking place in Port Coquitlam, one naturally assumes it is the Mayor of PoCo that is responsible for helping this man, but that assumption would be wrong. The man explains that it wasn’t Scott Young that helped him out, but the Mayor of a neighbouring city that helped out. “Maxine Wilson helped me,” he says, referring to the Mayor of Coquitlam. Then he adds, scathingly, “She actually cares about people.”

Does she now? I think to myself. It’s rare to hear someone who used to be homeless say something nice about politicians, so this indeed something unique. The man seems to suggest that Mayor Wilson is different than other mayors, as evidenced by what she did for him. But I have only this man’s word to go on – I’ve never spoken to the Mayor of Coquitlam. I have a feeling that is about to change.

***

The walls on her office seem to suggest a connection to people. On all sides of the giant desk that Mrs. Wilson sits behind whenever she is actually in her office, are pictures of her surrounded by giant clumps of humanity. In one picture, she is seen smiling with a group of Asians, in other she is seen grinning with her City Council. But perhaps the most telling portrait of Maxine Wilson is the one of her and her daughter as the watched the last election results come in. Her daughter is clasping her hand over her mouth and Maxine is looking on expectantly. It’s a picture a newspaper photographer captured and sent to Maxine who proudly posted it on her wall.

“How old do you think my daughter is?” she asks me as I study the picture closely. She’s a very young-looking girl, with a youthful face that could easily fit into any high school hallway. I venture a guess of sixteen. She laughs. Turns out the young woman is actually in her thirties. “Everyone gets that wrong,” she says.

She sits down in one of the seats that surrounds a small table in the other end of her office. I sit down next to her and begin explaining why I wanted to interview her, which means telling her about the man in the forest. When I had called her the day previous, I had left a message with her secretary that I wanted to discuss “homelessness” and that she could return my call whenever it was convenient. Less than an hour later, my phone rang and it was her.

Right away, she expressed her interest in the interview. “How does tomorrow sound?” she asked me. I was caught off guard, but maybe that’s because I am permanently scarred from my Mary Reeves ordeal. I said that it was fine. “How does 1:30 work for you?” I politely asked if I could bump that up to 2:00. “Sure, that’s fine. Whatever works best for you.”

I couldn’t conceal my surprise and quickly agreed to the interview. A phone call made to Scott Young last week was still not returned (but would be an hour later) and already I had an interview set up with the Mayor of Coquitlam for the next day. And remember, Mrs. Wilson and I had never met, and she had probably never even heard of SomethingCool News. Colour me impressed.
I mentioned Scott Young’s name at the start of the interview, explaining that I had spoken to him many times regarding the homeless problem in PoCo and expressed my view that until any sort of conviction appeared, he deserved the benefit of the doubt. She seemed to agree.

“People are products of their environment,” Wilson said calmly. “Scott’s had a difficult life. He’s a very easy Mayor to work with and remember, I am a woman saying that. He’s got some issues and he has to deal with them.”

What she didn’t agree with so much was PoCo’s policy of dealing with the homeless – i.e., tearing down their camps 85 times so far this year. “What PoCo is facing – and what we face – are residents who are afraid for their safety and are worried that they will be robbed so they phone the City and want something done,” she said. “But the only thing that will ever change it is to change the societal attitudes from being ones that are fear-based to realizing that we all have needs and we all need to support each other.”

Indeed, one resident of PoCo who watched the SCN mini-documentary The Displaced, wrote, “I live in this area and if your going to do a story about this then get all facts straight. The majority of these people are also drug addicts and we as residents are being affected greatly because they break into our homes, vehicles and steal and or vandalize our belongings. Drug deals are made in front of our children and homes. So tell the down side we as residents have to endure in the area; this is a huge problem and they create it!”

Those must the societal attitudes Mrs. Wilson is talking about. PoCo’s solution has been to destroy the camps only to watch them spring up on the other side of the trail. Maxine suggests a different solution: “The way I see we attack this is person by person and find the champions who will spread the word and mobilize so gradually people in the community help each other to be supportive.”

Okay, so I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking this all sounds like another episode of Sesame Street. It’s just another Mayor spouting off a feel-good message about humanity coming together and facing all challenges and blah blah blah. It’s the stuff someone who has never experienced the problem says from their comfy office armchair. I thought that too, but then I remembered that guy in the forest.

“Sure, I know a few people I have helped,” Mrs. Wilson replied when I inquired about this man. “I give suggestions all the time as to who people should connect up with. You know I never intended to get involved with politics, but through my years I have come to know a lot of people form a lot of different agencies.” She chuckles. “My staff always jokes that I am a walking encyclopedia because I know who to connect to what.”

She decides to give me an example. “We just had a family traumatized because their son is a cocaine addict who is facing trial. The mother has two other kids and she wasn’t able to manage her own life or the rest of the family’s and she didn’t know what to do. I know Diane Sowden from the Children of the Streets Society. I gave her Diane’s number and told her to call her and to tell her that she needed help. And she did. The next time I saw her she was beaming and her son was there too. So they are going to help their son and get past all that.”

I ask her if she feels gratified and fulfilled having partaken in such a success story. She doesn’t smile or nod – she just shrugs. “That’s my job,” is all she says and patiently waits for me to ask my next question.

There’s a lot going on in Coquitlam – the problem of homelessness may not be as bad as PoCo’s but it could one day be. It’s for that reason, that Coquitlam is working on getting some churches together to help provide shelter for some of them over the winter months and has a long term plan to lease land from the City to help house women and children who are living on the streets. It’s a place she hopes those who want help will finally be able to get it.

“My idea is not to trap anyone in a cycle of dependency,” she elaborates. “We want to help every person that wants it. We are all co-dependent, symbiotic. We all need each other. Each person should be given the chance to be as resilient and independent as they can manage.”

I tell her about the disturbing information I came across when filming the mini-documentary – that there may be a pregnant woman living in the forest. She counters that she has heard there may as many as forty women living in the woods. About the pregnant woman, she asks, “Who can she learn to trust again and how can she learn to stay together with her family? It doesn’t do us any good to blame anyone – each of us must step up to the plate and take personal responsibility. These people are not numbers. Each has a different story and needs to be supported.”

Like the man in the forest? “That’s right,” she says, again refusing to congratulate herself. So I ask again how it makes her feel to know there is one man who feels he owes Mayor Maxine Wilson something. “It means that one person ahs been able to progress in life,” she responds passively. “But there are many more we need to support. I’m not great. I’m just another ordinary person. There are so many other people out there who are doing good things, much greater than what I am doing. I’m just an average person who as an accident of circumstances ended up being Mayor.”

She paints herself – like the pictures on her wall do – as a woman who is just part of something much larger. “We all need to pull it together,” she continues. “We all need to make sure that everyone is included in our society. Put simply, if you see there needs to be change, change it.” I notice for the first time she looks nothing like a Mayor is supposed to. And then she says, “That’s all of our jobs.”