It's been a while, I know, but it's also been a crazy last month at the shelter. I'm not sure why but when I got back from my vacation, it was like the Downtown East-Side (DTES) was saving it all up for me. Normally I would assume that the warm summer days provide a lull in the chaos, and they were for a while. But then the shitstorm hit.
In the last month I have seen/had/dealt with:
a rain of dishes from a woman in the apartments above my office, a physical altercation with a male client who was beating a woman, 2 suicide attempts with a knife, 2 assaults on my person, a guy threatening to stab me in the face with a knife, a siesure, a man who nearly died in my arms, a dude who spent roughly 5 hours screaming at me and threatening to assault me and last but not least, someone losing the ashes of dead baby.
Whew.
With that in mind, it is no surprise that Vancouver Police have been reporting a 50% increase in incidents involving the mentally ill since last year and are recommending a special force to deal with it...but not more resources for the mentally ill.
In health news (as opposed to mental health) a couple of hardy DTES activists did a tour of most of the food lines in the DTES including the Dugout, the Carnagie Center, First United Church and the Harbour Light Center. All of these are places the clients I work with frequent and I bump people to the Dugout every morning.
They found that essentially, all the food is starchy, low-grade crap, with the exception of the Carnagie Center, but they charge money.
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1 comment:
please don't get stabbed before you move to Toronto!
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