Death and taxes

Death seems to be the theme of the year so far. Two funerals in just over a week, and my first outing to the Drug and Alcohol Related Deaths group.

The DARD group aims to identify any improvements any agency in the city could make. Sometimes, there really wasn't anything different that we can see would have made a difference. Accidents happen. The interaction between alcohol, drugs (street and prescription) is unpredictable. Sometimes people succeed in their aim of removing themselves from the planet.

But sometimes we have to admit we screwed up. When someone desperate is turned away because their ex works at the service they need....well, surely it's right that the staff member moves somewhere else so the person can actually get somewhere to live rather than stay on the street. And two of us agencies have changed our policies to make that so. It won't now help Nico, sadly.

And sometimes we just totally missed every chance.

One of the four people we discussed, Aga, was only 19. Her parents in Poland, who waved goodbye to her in September to go to uni in our city, had no idea that she'd dropped out, lost her place in halls, and got in with drug and alcohol users. Of course, being from and A8 country, she had no recouse to public funds, so couldn't get benefits or a roof over her head. So to get somewhere to stay she had to take what she could get, and sadly, a lot of the people who won't ask questions are the fluid population of drug users.

There are big questions here for national government, as well as us locally. The government want to end all rough sleeping by 2012. So someone somewhere has to do something about all the people who can't access public funds. Taxpayers rule.

And pity the person who had to tell Aga's parents that she had died, in England, and of a heroin and alcohol overdose.