One of our service users has just been evicted from the hostel he was staying in. The main reason for this is that he is too ‘high risk’. This is because of his many suicide attempts – deliberate or accidental he’s not really sure himself. This man is problematic; his alcohol use means he is quite disruptive and abusive which can have very negative effects on other residents of the hostel.
Last night he took a large amount of alcohol and an ambulance had to be called. His behaviour also meant that the police had to be called to get him in the ambulance. He also had a psychiatric assessment the result of which was that he has no mental health issues; the assessor puts his unusual and problematic behaviour down to his alcohol use (he has had many of these assessments but each is carried out in isolation never referring to information gathered in earlier assessments or taking account of volume of assessments that have been conducted). The trouble is that even if the alcohol is causing his issues of mental functioning he still has them. The major challenge is that he is receiving no formal support with these issues.
His Simon worker is with him now and they are trying to secure some emergency accommodation. If he manages to get some it might well be in a bed & breakfast. Is it right that this man who clearly has some massive support needs that could well be a danger to himself and potentially others is to be put in a completely unsupported environment?