Covenant House Vancouver

 A while back, we got a call from Riverview hospital about a girl who had gone AWOL (missing).

We happened to know the youth and had seen her the day before without realizing she was already AWOL The Hospital called just to let us know so that if we did see her we could try to get her back to a safe place. She showed up that very day to women's drop in all happy to see us and of course it is hard to decide to make that call - to know that you are going to get an ambulance here to pick her up and bring her back to the hospital.

My team and I worked together and we got the police here and the police were amazing, the sweetest, kindest most understanding police officers. They allowed me to talk with the youth before bringing her downstairs. At first the youth was quite upset and she said she was fine and didn't need any help and asked to please not let her be locked up. The police allowed us to stand there and work through the whole situation until the youth came to a point where she calmed down and she appeared to be feeling a little bit better.

Then we had to wait for the paddy wagon because the ambulance cannot transport somebody, even if it is a medical need, so it had to be the paddy wagon. We stood there and waited for the paddy wagon and while we continued processing the girl looked at me and said "You know what, it is for the best. I do need help". We talked about how much better she was doing and how much work she had obviously put in and she said "You know I am doing better and this is going to work for me".

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