Covenant House Vancouver

Last week I posted the fifth of eight pages from a young person's comic strip that depicts her experience in the pyschiatric ward faced with mental health and addictions issues.  It a startlingly powerful piece and we applaud her courage for creating it and for allowing us to share it with our readers.  Scroll down to see Part Six.

Please note that some of the language and content in the comic may be offensive to some readers. 

Comments, as always, are welcomed.

Part One: 

Part Two:

 

 

 

Part Three:

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My working relationship began with Carrie during the summer when she and her boyfriend came to Vancouver from another province. When I first met Carrie I could see she was sweet and gentle woman with much kindness in her heart; I could tell she came from a good family background. As time passed and my relationship continued to develop with Carrie I noticed she carried with her a heavy weight of sadness and learned she suffered from bipolar disorder.

When Carrie came to Vancouver with her boyfriend, she wasn't on the streets long before she began coming into Covenant House to see how we could help them find housing, get off the streets, and begin a normal life. The first thing we began to do was help Carrie get set up to stay at the shelter at Covenant House. Carrie seemed interested in this option so we went through all the necessary procedures and she was set up to stay for the night. The next morning I learned that Carrie had left the shelter the evening before to see her boyfriend who was still on the street and never came back.

This experience was the first of many that our relationship would encounter over the course of the next 5 months. There were times when we were on the road to making progress but then Carrie would disappear for periods of time or we would set up arrangements to shelters, or meetings for her to get housing and she wouldn't show up.

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We were fortunate to have had two tickets to the Olympics Opening Ceremonies donated to us from an individual donor who couldn't attend at the last minute and are thrilled that it was enjoyed so much by the two youth who attended. Below is the thank you letter one of the youth wrote to the donor:

Thank you so much for giving me the experience of going to the opening ceremony. I had so much fun and it was incredible and exciting! I cried when I thought of how amazing whoever it was who donated the tickets was; it takes a truly incredible person to donate the tickets and give us such a wonderful experience!

Thanks again,

(name withheld for confidentiality)

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Last week I posted the fourth of eight pages from a young person's comic strip that depicts her experience in the pyschiatric ward faced with mental health and addictions issues.  It a startlingly powerful piece and we applaud her courage for creating it and for allowing us to share it with our readers.  Scroll down to see Part three.

Please note that some of the language and content in the comic may be offensive to some readers. 

Comments, as always, are welcomed.

Part One: 

Part Two:

 

 

 

Part Three:

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Addiction devastates many families in Canada and at Covenant House we see its effect on our youth in many ways. Many of the youth we serve struggle with addictions (crystal meth, alcohol, heroin, crack) and many are on the street due to the addictions of their parents or caregivers addictions.

Addiction is not something to be ashamed of, whether it is affecting you personally, your child or someone else in your circle of family and friends.  Below are some resources you can seek out if you or someone you know is struggling with addictions.

If you have a specific question please feel free to write us at the Ask Covenant House section on our blog and we will do our best to answer your questions.

Support groups:

Alcoholics Anonymous Vancouver
Narcotics Anonymous
British Columbia Region of Narcotics Anonymous
Al-anon

Detox and treatment centres

Canadian Drug Rehab Centres
Angels Community

Other Information

Addictions and Recovery
Spiritual River

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We are very concerned about our 16 year old son and haven't heard you talk on the radio about this subject. Our son over the last year or so has been withdrawing from us as well as his friends. He won't have friends over any more and only sees one friend outside of school. Luckily they have an activity they do together twice a week or I fear he wouldn't see any of his peers. He stay is the basement most of the time or in his room. He prefers to play video games over everything else. I'm not sure where to go with our concerns.

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One of the toughest parts of being a Youth Worker is when we have to ask a young person to leave. As you can imagine, when a young person is asked to take a break from the shelter, they are not always appreciative of the decision. A big piece of our relationship with our youth is giving them an opportunity to advocate for themselves when they feel that they have been wronged. This is where Sister Nancy comes into play.

Sister Nancy acts as an ombudsperson for our young people. She sits with our youth after they have been asked to leave and allows them the opportunity to talk about whether or not they have been treated fairly. Not only does she provide an opportunity in which our youth can learn to advocate for themselves, but it also serves as a chance for our youth to learn to take ownership for their actions.

The other day we asked Brian to leave because he was continually being disrespectful to fellow shelter program participants. When he was asked to leave, he got very upset and didn't go without throwing out very disrespectful comments to the majority of the staff on the way-myself included.

Yesterday, Brian met with Sister Nancy to appeal the decision that he be discharged from program. They had a lengthy chat, and it was decided that the decision should stand- Sister Nancy agreed that a break was needed. Sister Nancy sent out notification that the appeal had not been granted and mentioned that she had a very good talk with this young man, and that he had taken some accountability for his actions.

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Last week I posted the third of eight pages from a young person's comic strip that depicts her experience in the pyschiatric ward faced with mental health and addictions issues.  It a startlingly powerful piece and we applaud her courage for creating it and for allowing us to share it with our readers.  Scroll down to see Part three.

Please note that some of the language and content in the comic may be offensive to some readers. 

Comments, as always, are welcomed.

Part One: 

Part Two:

 

 

 

Part Three:

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It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the passing of our dedicated volunteer, Brian Boyle. Brian passed away peacefully on February 6th, surrounded by his family at Vancouver General Hospital.

Brian started volunteering at Covenant House Vancouver in 2002 and helped us in many ways. He assisted at fundraising events, opened mail over many busy Christmas seasons, picked up food donations and drove to the recycling depot with items we couldn't use.

Brian was always willing to help with driving when we were in a pinch and he would even get a cube van for the job. There was only ever one condition: we had to have his coffee waiting for him when he arrived back at Covenant House!

Rest in peace, Brian. We'll miss your sense of humour and your very kind heart.

Brian pictured here at Covenant House's 10th Anniversary Celebration with (from left to right) daughter Janice Boyle, past Covenant House President Sister Tricia Cruise, and wife and volunteer Barbara Boyle)

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I checked in with Jesse, one of our mental health clinicians and guardian of Walter, our therapy dog-in training, this week to see how it was going. Jesse helped me understand more about how Walter and therapy dogs in general assist with counselling. Besides the general soothing effect a dog can have on someone who is stressed, therapy dogs provide a welcome distraction for people whose therapy session may be getting intense or uncomfortable.

Jesse explained that in a recent session he had a client who was getting to a rough spot in telling his story and clearly needed to take a break. Often the client is not aware of this or if he/she is, doesn't know how to stay "I need a break". So in this case, the client distracted the situation by asking if Walter "always snores when he's sleeping". A quick segue away from the pain was all he needed.

Jesse laughed telling me that young people who can't remember his name just call him "the guy with the dog".

 

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