Help Me Help You

I found myself at Safe Haven about 4 days a week.  I was really starting to get to know the clients on a first name basis and began building personal relationships with them.  It is not easy listening to some of their stories....One of my favorite clients, who I will call John, is schizophrenic.  He has voices screaming in head telling him to do awful things to people and to himself.  The voices tell him how awful he is and how he should kill himself.  He has progressed beyond oral medication and requires a shot in the arm every few weeks.  I got to know John quite well because he is so intelligent.  He is fluent in three languages, and knows more about ancient history than almost anyone I know.  It was in his second year of college that his illness took over.  He was not able to focus on homework as the voices got louder and louder.  Quickly, he got worse.  Hygiene was no longer important, nor was eating.  He went from a relatively cushioned life to living on the streets, unaware of himself or his surroundings.  John has been homeless for the better part of twenty years.  NOVA Safe Haven found him about nine years ago and he has been recovering ever since. 

I was doing research one day about methods to cope and deal with disorders like schizophrenia.  One article I found showed that community involvement and volunteerism can have very positive effects on individuals with serious mental illnesses.  I began to ponder about what types of activities these individuals can do while staying in their comfort zone.  I got in contact with two hospices for the elderly.  I told them what I did at the homeless shelter and we bounced ideas back and forth until we agreed that making cards for the hospice patients would be the best form of community service.  It started out simple, "Thinking of you.  Hope your day is going great!"  and we allowed the clients to put in some of their own words into the cards.  After about a week we had collected nearly forty cards to give to the hospice patients which they hung in their rooms and I was told by multiple hospice workers how it had brightened their days and made them fell loved and not forgotten.

(On a personal note to you reading this: Hospice patients are often forgotten.  Maybe make a card or volunteer to read a book or something.  These people are in the last stages of life and many times do not have visitors.)

It was a really great experience showing the clients at Safe Haven that they can make a difference in people's lives.  It is hard to measure the direct effect of the work they did, but I like to think that it got the clients thinking about other people and not just themselves.