Anna
Anna moved into the area 18 months ago having made the decision to remove herself from an unhealthy environment to help herself and her son get the life that they deserve. She had no family support and didn’t know anyone from the local area.
Anna came to our service with severe depression and border line personality disorder. She would self harm and was finding it hard to look after her son. He was placed with a foster carer.
With the help of a keyworker Anna started to think about her own interests and support needs. She became more confident and decided to enrole in one of the courses held at the centre.
“We did willow weaving, jewellery making and other projects. We then started a project on making a calendar. This really helped me to focus on something. While I worked on it all my negative thoughts and feelings were put to the side. The tutor who helped us with the photography and layout of the calendar was very supportive. I was happy with the final result, and we were able to sell it to raise funds for the centre”.
Anna has managed to battle through when many might have given up. She has shown great courage and determination and has given support and encouragement to others in similar situations to her own.
“I have enjoyed learning new skills, because it's helped to broaden my horizon. It's helped me to interact with other like-minded people. And it has given me something positive to focus on and made me want to do the best I can on whatever I am learning”.
Anna in a short space of time has built up a positive social network for herself and her son who has since returned home.
If this or any of the other stories relate to things happening in your life
call Independence Trust
0845 8638323
Teenage Girl
One evening an outreach worker introduced herself to a teenage girl who was using drugs but had never before had help.
She was homeless and sleeping rough on the streets. Her life was chaotic and she found it difficult to trust people so she was unlikely to have found help had we not found her. However, when she was offered an assessment she agreed.
She kept her appointment and was helped to access medical support and kept in touch with the outreach worker who she had met on that first evening. She is now accessing substitute prescribing and has bed and breakfast accommodation.
If this or any of the other stories relate to things happening in your life
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0845 8638323
Frank
Frank is 26 and has been homeless and a heroin user for some time, funding his heroin use through crime and begging. His health has suffered and he has damaged most of his veins.
He heard that he could access clean injecting equipment from Independence Trust and visited Montrose House in Cheltenham to ask about the needle exchange.
During his visit he was told about all the services he could access and given some advice about blood born viruses, overdose and other problems from injecting drugs.
Frank was keen to discuss treatment and without needing an appointment came again to talk about substitute prescribing. While here he was also given information about housing and phoned a housing provider to make an appointment.
As he became more familiar with staff over a period of time he explained how boredom was a problem. What he really wanted was a job, so he was told about our Community Integration Service and made an appointment to find out more.
The regular support was helping but Frank still had cravings for heroin and so he began auricular acupuncture to help with relaxation.
With the help of Independence Trust Frank now has stable housing, is healthier, more active and is considering residential rehabilitation. He continues to access support.
If this or any of the other stories relate to things happening in your life
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0845 8638323
50 Year Old Man
A 50 year old man asked his GP for tranquilisers but after visiting an alcohol worker at the surgery, realised he was drinking 5 times the recommended healthy limit and was suffering from anxiety. He had tried treatment before but had relapsed.
He agreed to attend 4 support sessions and began to record how much he drank and why. He learnt relaxation techniques and began to take more exercise. He set himself targets and his drinking and anxiety began to reduce.
By the final session he had stopped drinking and was feeling more positive. Three weeks later he was still not drinking and had avoided the need for tranquilisers.
If this or any of the other stories relate to things happening in your life
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0845 8638323
42 Year Old Man
A 42 year old man collapsed and was taken to hospital while drinking. While there he was assessed by an alcohol worker. He was drinking 5 times the recommended healthy limit each day.
Encouraged and supported by the worker be began for the first time to think about making changes. He agreed to attend his local Independence Trust service for help and support.
Months later he still attends regularly and has dramatically reduced his levels of drinking.
If this or any of the other stories relate to things happening in your life
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0845 8638323
Kevin
Kevin joined our Community Integration Service as a result of offences committed to support his use of Heroin. As is often the case, despite being on Methadone treatment he was also injecting Heroin and using Crack Cocaine. Kevin was homeless and staying at the Night Shelter and acknowledged that his life was chaotic and that now was the time to make big changes.
Kevin joined forces with a key worker and together a package of support was put together. Kevin joined groups looking at Relapse Prevention and Preparing for the Dangers of the Weekend (when support is harder to access). He also began one to one sessions working to a care plan.
Soon the chaos began to reduce as Kevin established a positive routine to his life. He obtained Supported Housing and his use of Class A drugs stopped. His medication changed, he received support around Hepatitis and other health concerns, and registered with a dentist.
By now Kevin needed not to make but to maintain the changes he had made. He learned life skills such as cooking and budgeting. He also attended the Recreation Group and Feelings Group and had access to IT & Basic Skills Tuition. He continued with one to one support sessions and to attend Relapse Prevention.
Kevin is now working towards employment by identifying and overcoming barriers to finding work, creating a CV, taking advice about disclosure of criminal convictions and interview techniques and accessing Job searching facilities.
We are grateful to Kevin for giving us an insight into his life and we wish him well as he continues to make progress.
If this or any of the other stories relate to things happening in your life
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0845 8638323
Christmas
The time between Christmas and new year can be a quiet time at work but often the clients we have visiting our bases are ones who we haven’t seen for a while, who are doing well and keen to catch up and let us know how they are getting on.
I remember clearly one day when one after the other old clients came to see us, each healthy, happy and home for Christmas (instead of in prison). I heard stories of new homes where they had previously been homeless, new marriages, new jobs, new children and new college courses. I saw happy faces and proud people.
The effect was to lift my spirits, which was needed for one particularly poignant reason. The very last thing I had done before going home for Christmas was to take a phone call from a grieving father, whose son was due to join our programme but who had overdosed the previous evening.
I can’t tell you how much it meant to see a steady stream of people who were doing so well. That experience kept me going for another year.
If this or any of the other stories relate to things happening in your life
call Independence Trust
0845 8638323