Over the last couple of months most of my agency shifts have been for the local council at various projects for the homeless. It’s okay, although like much social care and care work, it is often frustrating and tedious rather than “rewarding”. There are exceptions to this of course and one can always just try to be a genuinely kind person, regardless of how disturbed, stoned or aggressive people may be. Despite everything, most human beings respond to a bit of basic kindness and respect. There are some good people working with the homeless who really care.
As with psychiatric nursing, the reality is that some of the individuals you are dealing with are too badly damaged for anyone to really make much long-term difference to their life quality. Many are simply past caring. Alcohol or heroin or other substances have often taken over, and some are continually in and out of prison for one reason or another. Perhaps I am being overly cynical here and would see it differently if I was involved in keyworking and not just a temporary agency worker. Unfortunately, I suspect not. On the other hand, as with psychiatric nursing, a few do make real progress in recovering and are able to make the most of the help that is on offer. (Soon after writing this blog, I bumped into a very likeable ex-psychiatric patient who I’d worked with, a gifted young man who has made almost a total recovery, and he was full of praise for how much he’d been helped by staff at the NHS psychiatric hospital.)
On Monday I played the part of a tramp in an episode of BBC drama ‘Criminal Justice’, filmed in London and due to be shown in September. All I had to do was stagger around a bit in the background and remember the general state of the people in these hostels where I’ve been working!
