What Can Be Done About This?

[Kromovaracun]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/homeless-deaths-rough-sleeping-london-st-mungos-a8405121.html

According to the homeless charity St Mungos, homeless people are dying at a rate of 1 every two weeks in the capital.

The proportion of those dying who are confirmed to have mental illnesses has risen from 29% in 2010 to 80% now, and the number of recorded rough-sleepers in England has increased 73% in the last 3 years.

Surely this is a national disgrace regarding our treatment of vulnerable people? What action do you think should be taken?

[pastafreak]

Im a cook for a small local charity. Though I don't do formal support work as such, I'm still well aware of our numbers, how they are changing, what can or can't be done for individual clients, etc. Those with mental health issues are frequently tossed from pillar to post, with agencies not willing or able to help. If no one can help, they are basically dumped...or so it seems. There can be a lot of individual agencies involved...sometimes they seem to work against each other.
I know my co-workers are constantly feeling a great deal of frustration as their hands are tied. Numbers have gone up...they often do in the summer, but this rise has been since the winter. We do not see an increase in eastern Europeans...we've had the same core group for about a year. One of them passed away in a church doorway over the winter.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/03/homelessness-act-england-councils-legal-duty-fails-address-root-causes-charities-say

[rowanwitch]

Stop giving directly to street people but give to the charities that work with them. Better our coffee money jointly funds an outreach worker, or a bed in a shelter.

[youngmafbog]

If you can find a charity that doesn't cream of the major slice for it's directors.

[rowanwitch]

Sikh langar, most of the church run ones seem ok. I tend to think small and local. The big guns have big overheads

[pastafreak]

Definitely small and local. It's a contant struggle for small ones to get funding. We have a core staff in the drop in of just 5 doing support plus 2 part timers-I'm one...and cleaning messes and whatever else comes up. We rely heavily on volunteers.

[Deskdiary]

Kromo "How would you feel about him freezing to death?"

I don't know him and the probability is I'll never meet him again, and therefore will never be abused by him again, so there's no way I'd ever know whether he froze to death or not, but for the sake of the argument let's say I did know that he's froze to death - I wouldn't feel anything. Other than being abused by him this morning, he has no bearing on my life, so while it may sad, it wouldn't affect me one jot and I'd still sleep soundly in my bed at night.

The harsh, some may say uncaring, reality is that all of my feelings are vested in my immediate family, so I don't really care about the homeless.

[rowanwitch]

I think a lot of people feel that way, and when you have had a stream of abuse from a rough sleeper because you won't donate it is hard to keep in mind that they are in a hole it is hard to climb out from. Homeless charities don't do so well because they have neither an aah factor look me guide dogs, or a self interest appeal like Macmillan or cancer research (we all know someone who's had cancer and it could be me or mine next) We don't necessarily see a street person as someone like us.

[Kromovaracun]

Let's cross our fingers then and hope none of your immediate family are unlucky enough to end up homeless, DD.

Or, alternatively we can treat this as a social problem and look to reduce the numbers of rough sleepers to the smallest possible amount.

That seems just a tad more responsible than "I don't care if they die, because it doesn't affect me personally, so it is therefore unimportant. Me, me, me, me, me, me."

[rowanwitch]

I think I get the idea of not caring, but I think an element comes from so many causes clamouring for our resources. Someone might discount rough sleepers but be a regular giver to a children's hospital, might give generously to save the earth, but not to help individuals. Sometimes it is a case of if you allow yourself to take all the problems of the world on your shoulders you can be overwhelmed. I can't condemn those who can't sympathise with one group of they direct their caring to other areas of need

[andres]

In the 80s/90s when I worked in Mental Health the vulnerable patients on discharge would go to live in support houses.Usually with a family where one of the owners had been a nurse or social worker.Others would go to live in larger houses more like boarding houses where they would have their own rooms. They would have supervision and regular Day-Care at the local hospital. Now patients just seem to be turned out and have to fend for themselves. We should return to the old system .

[Deskdiary]

Kromo "Let's cross our fingers then and hope none of your immediate family are unlucky enough to end up homeless, DD."

Indeed.

Should that ever happen then that person will be helped - but I'm afraid I can't help everybody.

[pastafreak]

You can at least wish help for those who may not have a family like yours. Many don't.