First some good news. The shop on Tuesday had a record sales day. Well done to Lucy and her team. Also, our community party (only 10 days away) has already recieved some air time on Life FM. Let's look forward to that great day.
Today I was called out to see Todd (name changed). Todd has lost his goods in a house fire a few years ago. He lost his job last year through a worker's compensation claim. He lost his wife a few months ago because she could no longer handle his depression. He cannot afford his rent because they took out the lease when there were two income earners in the house. He cannot afford his child support and has lost access to his son because he cannot afford to feed him.
That's a lot of loss. Todd is ready to quit life. He is serious - and has tried suicide before. He had the intent and the means so we needed to act. We talked through a plan to keep him safe and made access to the mental health intervention team. We made sure that he didn't have the tools available to do anything silly for now. We made a pact for him to keep some appointments tomorrow. We've also made plans for some financial intervention early next week with the help of our financial counsellor, Gail.
What struck me is that this is all going on in a very nice street... only two doors down from one of our key community leaders who has helped our cause out quite often. I wondered as I chatted with Todd if the people in his street had any idea what was happening in their neighbourhood.
Do we have any idea what's happening in our street?
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