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After years of drug misuse, Mick is proud to have his own home

"I feel safe. This is the best place I have ever lived in all the time I have been homeless."

Mick is a 47-year-old man who, from the age of 12, lived in various types of residential schools/young offenders’ institutions. As an adult Mick continued his pattern of offending behaviour and subsequent incarcerations.  He became addicted to illicit drugs as a young man he has been addicted to heroin (IV), crack cocaine, opiates, Diazepam.  To date Mick has never had any paid employment. Mick was diagnosed with Schizophrenia in 2003 which was thought to be related to his long term misuse of drugs. Mick has never lived on his own due to being assessed as not having the ability to meet activities of daily living.

THE ISSUES

Mick had several three areas to address:

Accommodation, as he was living in a hostel and very vulnerable to exploitation due to his placid and unassertive nature - agreeing to anything that was asked of him; Drug addiction, as he had a long history of poly-drug misuse which had already caused considerable damage to his physical and mental health; and difficulties in consistently taking the prescribed medication needed to control his schizophrenia.

SUPPORT PLAN

Aspire Staff met with Mick on several occasions prior to him moving into his flat in the Aspire service. The purpose of these meetings was to build a positive relationship with him, and put a comprehensive developmental support package into place with Mick’s full agreement prior to him taking up residence in the flat. That package comprised of very detailed developmental support plans, starting with the basics such as how to operate a cooker. The focus was on predominately what Mick could do rather than what he couldn’t do in order to assist him to raise his confidence and skills in pursuing his potential and his wishes.

PROGRESS MADE

Progress at first was very slow - however there was progress. This has been monitored and encouraged daily by staff who record the outcomes he achieves. His Aspire ‘Support & Development Agreement’  has also been reviewed on a monthly basis with achieved plans being discontinued and replaced with new ones jointly devised with Mick that took full account of his improving levels of confidence and competencies - and his growing aspirations. His progress has also been monitored by his Community Psychiatric Nurse who works in close partnership with Aspire staff.  Mick has progressed beyond anyone’s expectations – including his own. His mental health is now stable as he has been consistently taking his medication as prescribed and he no longer uses, or wishes to use, class A drugs.

THE FUTURE

The purpose of Aspire’s accommodation-based Housing Support service has been to work alongside Mick to help him develop his self-confidence and support him in learning the skills needed to be as independent as possible, with a view to him progressing to live in longer-term accommodation that he both wants and is appropriate to his needs. He is well on his way towards achieving this, and it is envisaged Mick will be moving on to that new chapter in his life in the very near future.

IN HIS OWN WORDS

Mick describes his personal experience of Housing Support in the Aspire accommodation-based service:

“I love living on my own in my own wee hoose. The Aspire staff are magic. They help me keep ma hoose clean. They helped me join the credit union and I now have a bank book that could choke a horse. I never thought I would ever live in my own hoose. I like it here. I can visit my ma every day;    I get help when I need to go to the shops for food. I feel safe. This is the best place I have ever lived in all the time I have been homeless.”

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