– Haven for Hope staff encounter people at their worst, said Vice President of Transformational Services David Hewitt.
“We have suicide prevention trainings, we have mental health days that clients and our staff can take it any time,” Hewitt explained. “All of our staff go through de-escalation training and crisis intervention training. We know that a lot of our clients face trauma.
“I think you’re seeing the stress, the multigenerational stress from the parents not being able to afford rent from children, being out of school for years, from the instability for families, sleeping on different couches, bouncing from hotels to hotels.”
I’ve been there. I was grateful to have a mat in the courtyard. Yet, when someone has to sleep in the courtyard when it’s freezing and raining then morale and hope gets low. The key for mental health success is having a stable home & stable basic necessities. I see little.