Tailor-made work, anchored in the long term
It is a small team of ten people (social workers, nurses, educators) who intensively monitor people in street situations and others who have been rehoused. In Liège, 23 homeless people are currently supported by street nurses, 12 of whom have (re)found a roof. Every day in the field, IdR workers meet with beneficiaries at least once a week. The work, tailor-made, is anchored in the long term, far from urgency. “But we have unforeseen events all the time. Sometimes you have to do it four times for the appointment to go through. When we are in the street, we lose our bearings in time and space”says Céline.
This morning, Céline and her colleague Nicolas, a nurse with a specialization in psychiatry, have a meeting with Alice*, who has just lost her apartment, and then with Louis*, who has been in the studio for a few months.
How to make an appointment when you don’t have a mobile phone?
First step: a socio-health reception system for drug users, where Alice offered to find them. It’s a bit far to go there on foot, especially since you then have to combine a second appointment. A Cambio car will do the trick. A few clicks on the app and off you go. Alice would like to take a cure. In Liège, in particular, IdR beneficiaries often combine addictions and mental and/or physical health problems. The young woman must contact a service specializing in the care of drug addict patients before noon to confirm her request.
“There are not enough places for withdrawal in a hospital environment. But it is even more difficult to find a cure for the street public. Access to care is chaotic. How do we manage to make an appointment since the street when you don’t have a cell phone?asks Nicolas. When we are in survival, disconnected from space-time?
Get everyone off the streets? “It’s possible, even if we didn’t believe it ourselves!”
An endless Cluedo
The entrance to the reception house is discreet. Inside, there are around ten users who have come to get their methadone (a heroin substitution treatment), but no Alice. She hasn’t shown up for several days. Céline and Nicolas leave the building to wait for him outside. She doesn’t have a cell phone; we cannot contact her. She will no longer have her place in a few days but all her things are still there and she has lost her keys…”Everything is complicated starting from the street. We put bandages on all the time. It feels like we’re constantly playing endless Cluedo.”comments Céline. Alice has come a long way. She has already managed to redo her identity card and retrieved a bank card. The two Street Nurses are at her side to support her in her plan to get off heroin and cocaine.
Phone call to the street educators of the social relay, who are marauding in the center of Liège. They didn’t see her this morning. Céline and Nicolas make up their minds: they won’t see her today. “It’s not a big deal that she misses our appointment, but she had to call the head nurse of the health center before noon…”, said Celine.
In Brussels, care and pearls of humanity for the most vulnerable on the street
“That way, she sees that we are thinking about her”
“We’re going to leave a note. That way, she sees that we’re thinking about her and that she’s not alone”decides the young woman. She writes a few lines which end with: “Don’t hesitate to call us back.” She folds the A4 sheet, slips in a Street Nurse business card and gives everything to the reception team.
An old-fashioned way of communicating. “We also install boxes in the woods to pass messages”continues Nicolas. “The big thing in common between the people we support is loneliness. They have no network around them, neither family nor friends”. On the street, life expectancy is 48 years, compared to 82 years for the entire Belgian population.
Two dates, two rabbits…
An SMS comes on Street Nurses’ mobile phone. “Don’t come, I’m not here”. It’s a message from Louis, who cancels the meeting. “Two dates, two rabbits… It’s bad luck but it’s reality”comments Nicolas.
How not to get discouraged? “We tell ourselves that it’s catastrophic and then they re-mobilize, explains Nicolas. A person goes to the emergency room to treat a wound because they feel their life is in danger. Another goes to the municipal administration to reissue an identity card. In this life of survival, they stood up to take action. When patients devalue themselves or believe that they have no resources, I tell them that they have much more than they think and that in their place, I don’t know how I would survive.”
Street nurses cling to “small victories” of their beneficiaries, to these “nugget moments” which arise when everything seems to stagnate, or even tumble.
* assumed first names.
A comic book auction
Online The Street Nurses association is organizing an exceptional comic book auction until Wednesday, November 13, 2024, with the collaboration of the Coll-Auctions auction house and the support of The Skull bookstore. This event, which takes place online on Drouot.com and will end with a special evening at the Brussels City Hall, pays tribute to Marie Gérard and Luc Louveaux, two former volunteers, passionate about comics, who wanted to perpetuate their commitment by bequeathing their impressive collection to the association.
A gesture of solidarity All funds raised will be donated to Street Nurses to finance concrete actions: care, social support, access to housing and awareness of the situation of the homeless. Each auction represents a gesture of solidarity towards the most vulnerable people.
https://drouot.com/fr/v/159101-bande-dessinee-vente-caritative-au-profit-de-la-s-b-l?page=2
