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.

...and another one

No wonder the average age at death of street homeless people is 42. Another of our ex residents, a young Polish girl, only 19, is dead. Reportedly, she died of a heroin overdose. Her boyfriend, a white English man, says another of our ex residents forcibly injected her, as she had refused heroin before. She was a big drinker, so his theory is that she was so drunk she didn't know what was happening to her.

Either way, another tragic waste.

Sad news

The police called to say that one of our residents was found dead behind some shops. He was only in his early 50s, so we had to keep his room untouched until after the post mortem, in case of foul play.

It was heart failure, probably not a lot anyone could do. But it makes you wonder, if he'd been in his room, would it still haev happened? Would he have had time to pull the red emergency cord? And coudl we have saved him? But anyway, at least he would have had some dignity.

We asked the commissioners, when the new project was planned, if we could open 24 hours. No was the answer. It's a very temporary project, don't want people to get oo comfortable.

Mmmm. I wonder.