Final Morning Musings From The Big Easy

We've been through the majority of the conference now and there have been some great symposiums, discussion groups and exhibits on mental illness, co-occurrings, homelessness and treatment protocols. For example, yesterday morning we spent two hours discussing the effects of street outreach on everyone from the Homeless person to outreach team to the bystanders to the community residents who felt they were "impacted" in some way by the Homeless person's presence in their neighborhood. It was great fun, although sparsely attended (a pattern that was repeated throughout the day at various lectures) and we made some new friends and colleagues in the process. It was even suggested we put together our own Homelessness conference in order bring together those of us who do such unique and "nontraditional" work so that we could share, collaborate and recuperate from the toll outreach can take on one's mind, soul and body. Greatest tidbit: Michele reminded us that we do a special kind of work with a very special kind of client and we shouldn't forget that we've volunteered to assist a person who is often at the very bottom of his or her life. An afternoon session ranked by far as the finest I'd seen in the conference yet; it addressed a full system change in the way co-occurring clients were handled. What this team did in New Mexico and Louisiana is so amazing that I am devoting an entire post to that session and it will be coming most probably after I return home this evening. Today we spend our time with Dr. Goldfinger and I believe a group of NYC Resident physicians who must, as part of their training, acquire some background and training on homelessness. What better place to do that than with a group of homeless outreach workers, eh? I'd say with the Homeless themselves, but I'm not sure these poor folks would have the slightest inkling on how to go about doing that. On a personal note, we head home tonight around 5pm and I haven't checked my email in about 3 days now so I'll most likely be working from home in the AM until I can get through them all. My phone has rung off the hook (do we still use this phrase with cellphones?) since I've been here and I imagine things will be hopping for a few days upon my return. On that note, one of the biggest things I've come away with from this conference, and it seemed to be a major theme in many of the discussions, was to keep the worker chugging along at a pace that wouldn't cause him/her burnout. While I always feel like going to work is a joyous occasion, I've got to remember that I need to slow it down a bit. We'll see if that's possible when I return to Nashville and hit the streets again tomorrow.....