Interestingly enough the night started off slow and quiet. Usually people come in pretty ramped up and then the night progressively gets calmer and calmer. I usually check people in when the doors open and my husband helps out with miscellaneous guest services and checks in on the family side. We had no families on the family side, that has never happened before. I would like to think it was a good sign but somehow doubt it. Someone said they had probably found enough money to rent a hotel room for the weekend. I remember right after we had our first big flood of checkins saying, "wow people are pretty sober tonight"
There are always a lot of smokers going out to the parking lot but tonight it seemed like some people would go out to smoke and come back barely able to walk. I swear someone had alcohol in the parking lot or something. We had one boy (20 something) come in with his pants down on the arms of two friends, drooling and unable to talk.
That is why Sanctuary is there though. They are the only homeless shelter in Boise that allows intoxicated people to stay. They have three levels of access. There are beds for people that are sober or at least in full control of themselves. Then there is the floor mats for people that are less in control of themselves. Lastly there is the drunk room for people that are having problems walking, swearing, and generally not able to control themselves. A lot of the residents self report themselves and just go where they need to be.
9 o'clock is bedtime and usually the residents are like clock work and spring into action. 8:45 they jump up from the tables and start clearing the dining area and making it into the mat area. They usually do this with very little direction from staff. Tonight no one could get it together, there was a tussle over tables and proper procedures and NO ONE would stop talking. More than a few people were standing around and chatting all the while we were telling them to go to bed.
All of a sudden someone that was instructed to move into the drunk room, comes out yelling "he's puking up blood, he's dying" It was the young boy who came in in such bad shape that I mentioned earlier. The staff manager sprang into action and called 911 while the volunteers went to perform first aid. There was 10 minutes of pure chaos as everyone got excited and wanted to see what was going on. The paramedics arrived and took control of the boy but by that time more than a few residents were so riled it was hard getting them settled back down. Sounds like the boy probably suffered a heroin overdose but I am not really sure since I was mostly focused on preventing fights from breaking out and getting people back to their beds and settled.
Then it all died down, the boy was taken to the hospital, the mess was cleaned up, the last resident that refused to lie down (the man that found the boy lying in his own vomit) chose to leave and everyone else settled into sleep. All of a sudden it was just like any other night. Well...I had to leave to get home to the girls. My husband and I try to switch who stays until midnight when the other shift operator comes in. Tonight he wanted to because we had other volunteers last month. I have to say I felt a little relieved. I will be interested to hear what his report of the rest of the evening will be.
While tonight was scary I think it also empowered me to be more involved and lead the residents more than ever. I usually always leave the hard stuff up to the shift manager. And usually the hard stuff is trying to get a drunk person to lie down or warn people about their language or prevent a fight from breaking up. Tonight the hard stuff was life or death and I got to deal with the piddly stuff. It will be interesting to see how it shapes my volunteer experience in the future. I am sad, scared, worried and also proud that I was able to step in and help in a time of trial. I wouldn't want an experience like that to happen every month but it is nice to know I can play my part when the time comes.
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