A mentally ill street dweller in the vicinity of Church's Chicken in Port-of-Spain had pedestrians scurrying when he began picking up bottles and pelting them at people earlier this week.Another woman was walking to work on Thursday with a bag of jelly buns when another street dweller walked up to her and politely asked, "Can I have a bun, please?"
Yesterday, on Independence Square, a different street dweller, dirty and barebacked, with a stack of newspapers under his arm and a rotting foot, tried to hold a conversation with a group of women. Later, he walked up St Vincent Street, muttering and shouting intermittently at passers-by, who cast not a glance at him.Yesterday afternoon, a vagrant with a crocus bag bundle under his arm walked down Queen Street loudly freestlying a dancehall.
A quick walk through Port-of-Spain yesterday from Tamarind Square, a favourite vagrant hangout, to St Vincent Street yielded 23 street dwellers.Filthy, mentally ill vagrants have become part of the landscape of the city. Pedestrians walk past them as they sleep comfortably on the sidewalk and side by side with them as they go about their business.The Ministry of the People and Social Development began a pilot project last December to remove street dwellers, but it doesn't appear much has changed.
It's a mammoth task, one that has the Inter Agency Unit (IAU), in charge of the project, working through the night sometimes, says Nicole Kingston, social services co-ordinator.Up to the last count, there were 1,482 street dwellers in the densely populated areas of T&T.The IAU began in Port-of-Spain and counted between 400 and 500 vagrants. To date, 125 have been picked up, she said. Of these, 17 have been rehabilitated.
Several others of the 125 who were simply homeless and did not need rehabilitation were given help in finding work and places to live, she said.Picking up a street dweller and rehabilitating him is not a quick and easy task, Kingston said. Walking the Guardian through the process, she said, "We walk the streets and talk to them, offering them a place to go. Most of them want to get off the streets. We are scheduled to do at least three pick-ups a month.
"As we pick them up, right there and then, mental health and social workers and doctors do an assessment."They are then taken to Transformed Life Ministry in Arouca, where another assessment is done and they are fed and made to shower. They are given a change of clothing, haircuts, manicures and pedicures."The next day they go for all the medical testing, for HIV, STDs, hepatitis, have a dental check-up and undergo psychiatric evaluation."
What the IAU found is that 50 per cent of those picked up have dual diagnoses, that is mental and substance abuse issues. Twenty per cent are substance abusers only and another 20 chronically mentally ill. Some ten per cent are socially displaced owing to job loss, family disputes and financial problems.They come from all over T&T and all walks of life, Kingston said. "We have an engineer among us. Some people just can't deal with stress."
Those with mental and substance abuse problems undergo psychiatric evaluation and are stabilised with medication to begin treatment."It takes about three to six months to get them stabilised, and remember, we only began the project last December. We do treatments to fit the needs of each person."
T&T does not have a proper mental health programme and the IAU tries to find places to send those with chronic mental illnesses, she said. The unit also tries to reconcile street dwellers with their families.The former vagrant is then taken to a transitional housing facility, like New Horizons in Piparo, home of executed drug dealer Dole Chadee, where his treatment is continued and he is taught life skills, like how to open a bank account, apply for a job and read and write.
"Some of our clients now have jobs and their own places," Kingston said.
IAU successful
Nicole Kingston is a social worker specialising in mental health who spent 31 years in the US working in street-dwellers programmes.She believes the IAU's programme, thus far, is successful. Due to the continuing drug trade, she thinks removed street dwellers will be quickly replaced."It's becoming a worldwide phenomenon."
Kingston said the IAU has a staff of about 22 people which it is looking to increase to 120. It also plans to solicit the help of non-governmental organisations."By year's end we want to get 60 per cent of the street dwellers off the streets."The programme was given an $8.5 million budget and Kingston does not see it as a burden on the State."We are our brothers' keepers. We feel responsible for our clients as if they were our children," she said.
Facts
Vagrants in PoS: 400-500
Picked up since December: 125
Rehabilitated: 17
Off streets by end of year (planned): 60 per cent
Mental health issues: 20 per cent
Substance abuse issues: 20 per cent
Suffering from both: 50 per cent
Socially displaced: 10 per cent