7:00 a.m. I woke up in my tent. I did a little bit of work on my phone writing and putting together blogs. It continues to rain.
At 8:00 a.m. I got ready and I drove to work.
At 9:00 a.m. Mitchell from the local drug treatment center came with me to do street outreach. We loaded up the truck with supplies and we headed out to the harm reduction facility nearby to get a box of narcan. We walked over to the faith-based homeless day shelter where we saw Mateo, Phil, Meili, Luis, and David. We provided Mateo with blankets and clothes, socks, and ponchos. I gave Phil a jacket and some boots. I received a call from a social worker who works at the local hospital about a man who was getting released into the streets and needed help with shelter. I had the social worker put the man on the phone and I had a conversation with him. I had met him in a tent before, and I assessed that he seemed like a good fit for the shelter.
Mitchell and I stopped back at the shelter. We then drove to The hospital to grab Corey since he was being discharged. Corey had been in the hospital for drug-related health issues. Mitchell and I brought Corey back to the shelter and did an intake with him. Next Mitchell and I drove to the grand opening of a community justice resource Center in a neighboring city, that will provide services for people that are justice involved. They also will be helping people get addiction treatment. We stopped, ate lunch, and gave out cards. Next I stop by a local addiction medicine provider to talk to their outreach coordinators about ways that we could help people in the street, and the services they provide especially methadone. This addiction medicine provider takes MassHealth which is very useful for the population that I serve.
By the end of that meeting it was 3:00 p.m. Mitchell and I came back to the shelter and unloaded the truck. I came in and did a coordinated entry for Corey in the coordinated entry system, which is the state system that handles rapid rehousing for people that are homeless. I then transferred his file over into the shelter system, since Corey would be staying at the shelter. The whole process of doing intakes and transferring people in a different systems can be kind of confusing, but I’m starting to understand it. As I wrote this it is just about 5:00 p.m. I’m getting ready to head out and have a fabulous weekend.
I decided to drive to a friend’s house. I slept outside all week. And I had no motivation to do much for myself. It had been cold and rainy. I was a bit depressed over my most recent break up. And I hadn’t showered in almost a week. While I was driving I stopped and took a little walk in the woods and took a picture of two trees with commingling root systems. Then I went to a friend’s house and took a shower. And I slept inside for the night.