Today, I would like to tell you about Mrs A.*, whom our street team has been supporting for exactly one year. She has been living on the street for years and is getting older. She is increasingly experiencing memory problems, which make her daily life even more difficult. Conversations can therefore sometimes become confusing, and it is not always easy to know how best to help her. On top of this, there are old wounds and events from the past that regularly resurface and seem to keep her trapped in a story that is difficult to escape.
For a year, we explored several ways to help her, whether with her health, her social situation, access to shelter or simply her daily life on the street. All of this helped us build a relationship with her, but we were unable to resolve the situation concerning her bank card. Mrs A. has an income, but she cannot access it because she has a blockage regarding the bank. Her condition is deteriorating week after week because she does not have enough to eat, cannot afford any small pleasures and is losing morale.
After several weeks of reflection, both as a team and with her support network, and after carefully weighing the advantages and disadvantages, we decided to speak to Mrs A. about placing her assets under legal administration. The objective was concrete: to allow her to regain access to her financial resources, in particular by resolving the situation concerning her bank card. This process was carried out in complete transparency, taking the time to explain our concerns, our arguments and the benefits we hoped it would bring her.
We then submitted the request, and a justice of the peace came to meet Mrs A. and supported us in this process. A lawyer was appointed, and he also came to meet her on the street. The first exchanges were rather mistrustful and the tension was palpable. Then, gradually, the atmosphere became more relaxed. As the meeting came to an end, Mrs A. looked at the lawyer’s bicycle, lifted it curiously and asked with a smile: “Is it made of carbon?”
A light, almost insignificant moment, but one that said a great deal. Today, Mrs A. accepts that he will come back to see her and that they will go to the bank together. A small step forward that opens up the possibility of building a relationship of trust, one step at a time.
A beautiful lesson reminding us that moving forward in small steps, together and with complete transparency, works!
- Story from Margaux, social worker on the streets
Help our teams continue supporting people, one step at a time.
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(*) We do our utmost to respect the privacy of our patients and our professional secrecy. However, we want to testify to how they must survive and how we are working together to reintegrate them. As a result, the names of places and people are deliberately omitted or changed and real-life situations are placed in a different context. There is no direct link between the photos and the stories above.