Youngsters sleeping rough

It is very distressing. In our local town there is a girl who lives in an alcove in front of what was a cinema but is now a "freedom church" - hopefully the churchgoers will see fit to free her from her misery at some point.

Yes it's heart breaking to see so many homeless people of all ages and backgrounds. It has become the norm to see this in almost every town in the country. It's just not right. Especially when we live in such 'a material world'. I get so upset to see these poor folk. It is an enormous issue now.

I work with homeless people, and it is tragic to realise how many have grown up within the care system.
While it is easy to say that many are homeless because of lifestyle choices (refusal to comply with basic rules of no drugs,no alcohol,no violence, within provided accommodation) the reasons are far more complex.
A survey a few years ago identified that of 14 homeless individuals tested in Devon, 9 proved to be on the autistic spectrum but without previous diagnosis.

The picture is also not always quite as it may seem. I know of seven clients currently who are accommodated, and have a wide range of support available to them, who routinely beg in the local town centre and present themselves as homeless.
We offer a great deal of support to try to prevent it, as do the local police, but it still occurs on a daily basis.

I have no answers. I wish I did.

I'm just back from a few days in Leeds and I was shocked by the number of beggars on the streets. There was even a kind of mini-community of tents in one place. I've not seen anything on that scale in my area of Scotland.

Pretty much all of them were older people, though, not youngsters. Many seemed to have MH problems - care in the community?

Shocking and sad. A sign of the times and a non caring society?

Ex service people who find they can't fit in after discharge from whatever branch of the services they were in. Used to having every aspect of life organised for them it's a shock to suddenly have to cope in civvy Street.

We do soup runs and I chatted to a lovely young lad who said he hadn't eaten all day.
His dad had thrown him out of the family home because he was gay. I thought we were more accepting in this day and age, but apparently not.

I agree it is heartbreaking, but I have no idea how to help. In our area we are told by the authorities not to give money to the beggars.

We have a man and his dog outside M & S food store, and I am tempted to buy the dog some food and the man a sandwich, but slightly scared of his response.

On a recent trip into London, there were a lot of men on the streets with cardboard notices saying that they were ex-forces personnel, which is very close to home as we have an AC in the forces.

Many have been in care but there are also a lot with loving family members who cannot have them at home without support.

A big tall teen with unresolved mental health issues in your home, CAMHS not interested unless they are IMMINENTLY suicidal, flying off the handle because there is nowhere to turn to for the mental health care they need, resorting to drugs to self medicate because unless you are an immediate danger to yourself or others, adolescent mental health services are too over syretched. "Why dont they go private? I would pay if it was my teen?" who would you pay? mental health does not have the same range of treatment options as other health conditions. There are 3 private physical health hospitals near me, where is the nearest private mental health facility? As far as I know its 1.5hrs away and only treats addiction, not the precursors to addiction. For that we would be looking at london, and of course the teen would have to agree/comply to go there...

Now what if I have other vulnerable young/old people in the home? How many times should I take back the teen who brings home random strangers, smashes the house and steals from us? We can LOVE him or her, but there comes a point for a lot of families where self protection or protection of other dependants causes a line to be drawn.

"Broken homes". Were they broken to begin with? Or did the years of fighting for services that don't exist take their toll.

Yes. A lot of young addicts are products of their upbringings. But its too easy to blame the families. We are all to blame. We are watching welfare getting used as a dirty word, we are watching a school system that breeds mental health issues emerge, poverty increase etc.

What could you REALLY do if it was your relative in that doorway? Okay, say you take them in, what then? The issues that landed them on the streets will still be there, then what?

You see many families have taken in their homeless family members over and over and over again. There needs to be outside help & support to make it work, which there isn't.

It is far far harder to get someone seen by a psychiatrist than it is to get someone seen by a urologist or cardiologist etc.

Support workers/services do what they can, but its not the same as having access to the appropriate medical team. Imagine having recurrent kidney stones and being seen by a cheap and over-worked urology support workers rather than a urology medical team? Thats how it is in psychiatry for a lot of people.

"Support worker" is a lying term. They aren't supporting a MDT in a lot of cases, they ARE the MDT. They're it! That's all you get. And they can be bloody good at their job but it is not enough!

It is upsetting to see but I kind of agree with chaosincorporated. Sometimes people simply do make the choice and have witnessed it in Bournemouth. Not wishing to give too specific details but not total strangers. Kids of parents known to me! Got offered help but preferred to sleep out. Speaking to them and their friends everything did seem to stem from drugs! Also an unwillingness to accept help/advice. Some do eventually but many will die young and some may live on the streets for years! I couldn’t “get” why they felt it was preferable because there appear still to be rules of sorts if only “street” rules and they had to have their wits about them always.

So what do you think society can do in these situations? Would it be acceptable to round them up, lock them up, enforce cold turkey with the hope they will see sense? It’s what I would like to have done with a couple of them. Both brought up reasonably well and also had a place to return to for that matter. Heartbreaking.

As for armed forces, there are some very effective treatments for PTSD (Which isnt everyones issue post discharge I know..) but they require weekly/monthly 1:1 sessions and its much cheaper to stick someone on medication to keep them imminently safe (medication has a role but won't do the whole job).

Leaving prison or the army for those that went in young can present challenges that the rest of us cant even imagine! Imagine never having shopped or cooked for one, never paying your own bills etc And now imagine admitting that as an adult! Imagine having achieved a career in the army where you've learnt skills a lay person couldnt do but having to admit that you didn't know that you had to register yourself with a GP.

I think the age for recruitment to armed forces should be raised personally. If you go in as a fully formed adult then coming out and adulting will have some fewer challenges than the teens who never lived as adults before going in.

suport is the key ,we have ayoung friend who joined the army to "have acreer" they told him he would go to university and be able to study nuclear physics,that was his dream.
Well of course one of Blairs illegal wars happened and he ended up in Afghanistan ,when he came back he was a broken man.His marriage collapsed ,his relationships with his parents collapsed and he moved away from the area where he had lived all his life.He ended up on the streets in the West Country .There are sadly many like him ,the country is happy to allow recruiting from schools in poor areas and boys join thinking they'll have a wonderful life/career.When they come home damaged ,physically or mentally theres no support for them .Its a disgrace in the 21st century that we allow it to happen .

a career .

Bluegal as an outsider we imagine that addiction and living on the streets is a lonely isolating experience, but actually it offers a camaraderie of sorts. As an addict you have an instant social life, sure they wanna sell to/from you or steal from you, but addicts have company. Its SOBRIETY that is lonely. When you go clean you have to distance yourself from your addict social life, when you fall off the wagon you get it back. When you are clean, non addicts still see you as an addict, but youre not one of the addicts either. You no longer belong.

Teens need to know that they have a place in society and then they will have less incentive to seek belonging elsewhere.

PaddyAnn absolutely. In-house qualifications don't translate to civilian life. I know several people in the armed forces who have self funded their "re-training" in the skills/trades/jobs they already did to a high level in the army because the army would not fund or support them in getting civilian recognised qualifications for their army roles.

It s certainly not always as it seems
I took in a young lad of 16 some years back I m not sure if it’s still the same but then at 16 they left care and needed a half way house before they were old enough to be out living an adult life He was a very personable young man clean and tidy and fitted in very well Then a few weeks in I found some money missing that I had put aside to pay a bill I asked him about it after first lying he then came clean, cried and apologised He wrote me a lovely letter of apology I forgave him of course I did and a couple of weeks on and the same thing happened but quite a bit this time I had the money ready to pay my TV licence in my purse and the whole lot went Again I forgave him but when it happened the third time in a short space of time I had to ask him to leave The last I heard quiet some years on, he was in prison for holding up a shop with a gun

If my kids wanted to join the army I would support them. But I would find out what army role appealed to them and urge them to get their civillian qualifications in that role FIRST, and THEN join the army

Adult ed funding was cut to fund this drive to keep young people in formal education until 19 (which conversely is driving many who hate school into the army because they hate school and don't wanna go to college until 19) so when adults leave the army with lots of inhouse training but sod all to show to civilian employers, what can they do?

Notanan - I do agree with you that it is not always possible to have someone at home when they have mental health or drug problems.

Thank you, you have all made very valid observations, it is so complex a problem but the bottom line is there is insufficient care and support out there and no money. I do admire people that get involved, most on a voluntary basis, soup runs, survival packs and a kind word, in my eyes they are heroes, not just talking about it but doing something. I often speak to youngsters, ask their name etc tell them mine, I hate that they might think they are invisible I have never once had a negative response, I would not start a conversation with somene high on drugs or drunk, just evaluate the situation as it presents, but it's not enough.

LL9 there is money. Aren’t we one of the biggest economies in the world? People just don’t want to pay more tax, even when they can afford it ?

Oh....but for the grace of God !

Perhaps some of our overseas aid could be channelled to helping the rough sleepers but obviously only the ones willing to be helped, some are beyond help sadly.