It’s very important when working with challenging people that the door is always left slightly ajar to retuning to services when you have no option but to exclude them. Over the years at The Wellspring I have had to bar hundreds of people. These are chellenging people, people with needs and issues that we are well equipped to help to address. But when people present a high risk to the saftey of people in the project you have no option but to exclude people.  Leaving them with an option to change is something I’ve always taken pride in doing.

We should never give up on anyone. We never are truly in possession of all the facts that make someone challenging. We often fail to see past certain behaviours and make snap judgements. Recently while surfing the quagmire that is social media I found a video of a young homeless stockport girl begging in the street, clearly under the influence of probably multiple substances. Hundreds of comments have been made and 95% of them are very negative.  People simply chose to mock and point rather than look at this person as a human being with multiple challenging issues. In my experince people who are living the kind of lifestyle this person is usually end up dead within months.

As staff we have a duty and an obligation to try and try again to support people like this. To make steps to build a possitive relationship, to give advice, to minimise risk. To provide them with the comfort of being treated like everybody else. Now this perticular person has assaulted me numerous times, attacked me with weapons and furniture. Spat in my face and called me just about every offensive term I’ve ever heard, and a few new ones…… However I always left the door to our services slightly ajar. I now have a much better relationship with this person  and we will do all we can to save this young girls life.

Never give up and hope you don’t run out of time.