Tom recently received the news that his ex girlfriend had fallen pregnant again. This news was a huge shock to Tom and ultimately he started to use a lot more class A drugs and buried his head in the sand. Again he started to disengage from services and had the ‘I don’t care about life’ attitude, so again I tried my best to keep Tom engaged and I came up with some active coping strategies for him to try, but again despite my best efforts Tom started using heavily and drinking most days.
I arranged to meet up with Tom one day to just have a chat and he asked me about reimbursing him for some travel expenses. I had to decline as the ticket was a weekly rider and therefore he had no travel needs. Tom didn’t take this very well and told me that I was shit and that myself and Simon On The Streets could “go f**k yourselves” then he stormed off.
I wasn’t offended by this as I knew that it wasn’t about me, Simon or the bus fare, but rather about Tom’s situation and him not coping well.
I didn’t push engagement as similar things had happened in the past and Tom had always got back in touch with us also I was still in touch with his DRR worker and Probation so I was still updated on Tom’s progress every couple of days.
I got a text from Tom around 2 weeks after the outburst with an apology and asking if I could give him a call. I phoned Tom and he told me that he was sick of the life he was leading and that he was ready to make a change so naturally I went to meet up with him and he had made a plan.
Tom had been engaging with his DRR key worker and they had formulated a plan around Tom going to residential Rehab. Tom was excited about the prospect of not only being drug free, but if he did managed abstinence then his ex girlfriend would have no ammo against Tom’s right to see his son.