It's all about the clients

Merry Christmas, everyone. I know a lot of you are busy with last minute details. Perhaps you have to hit the mall one more time to pick up a last gift. Maybe you're in the kitchen baking holiday treats for the friends and family who are going to visit over the next few days.

At Shepherds of Good Hope, we're getting ready for Christmas, too. The decorations have been up for weeks and the gifts for the men and women will be handed out tomorrow. A lot of the shoe boxes we hand out are put together by school children and I want to send a special thank you to all the students who helped us in our mission this year.

This morning, we were hanging some art in the shelter to give a little more colour and to show off the special talents some of the men and women have. Here's a little exhibit along with a group photo of some of the artists.

Shepherds of Good Hope is in the news

It's been a good week for Shepherds of Good Hope when it comes to media coverage.

One of the ways to show you what type of impact we're making in the community with your donation is to tell stories. When we can get some of those stories out through newspapers and radio, it gives us a different way to reach you. Lots of people still listen to radio or read a newspaper.

Today, Ottawa Citizen columnist Kelly Egan wrote a column on the TESP diversion program. Some of you might remember that back in June we introduced a new protocol for paramedics. They no longer have to bring a homeless person to the hospital ER. We have health staff at our shelter and we can help homeless men and women with certain needs. I'll let you read the column to discover how beneficial this is.

We also have Alison Sandor at CFRA who profiled the managed alcohol program at The Oaks. This is a very innovative program that has attracted attention from around the world. Again, I'll let you read the story to find out what makes this program so exciting.

I'm hoping that when you read these stories you'll appreciate the impact your donation has on the men and women who have so little but need so much. The three most important things we do with your donation is provide shelter, food and clothing. But Ottawa's homeless men and women need so much more if they are going to find a way out of shelter life and into their own housing.

That's what your donation accomplishes. If you would like to see first-hand the impact your donation has, please call me for a tour of our facilities at 613-789-8210, ext. 247, or reach out by e-mail at asilverman@shepherdsofgoodhope.com.

Generating buzz about MAP

Sometimes things just never get old. Earlier this week, we got an alert about a story on Shepherds of Good Hope and its managed alcohol program. Interesting.

When I clicked on the headline, I discovered the story and video was done in 2011. I read it anyway and found it to be a powerful story and a straight forward look at what we do. I know I've blogged several times about our managed alcohol program and we've done stories for our website and Facebook page, but there seems to be a lot of interest in this program.

We have experts across Canada and around the world who come to visit us to find out more about the program. But we also have a lot of donors or people who follow us on social media who are also very interested. When we posted that 2011 story and video on Facebook earlier this week, I was astounded with how many people commented or read the story. I'm so happy with how many people are taking an interested in some of our more innovative programs.

I believe that if you know more about what we do and how it helps Ottawa's homeless population, then you will be more comfortable helping us out, either with a donation of cash or a donation of goods. The reason we prefer financial donations is that as a large shelter that serves 1,600 men and women every day, we have some buying power that most individuals don't have.

Meanwhile, in case you haven't seen the story, here's a link. And here's a link to the donation page. Please consider making a donation this fall. The donation you make goes to helping so many of Ottawa's most in-need men and women.

If you would like to know more about Shepherds of Good Hope or would like to book a tour, please contact me at 613-897-8210, ext. 247 or by email at asilverman@shepherdsofgoodhope.com.

All the way from down under

We had a special visitor this week all the way from the land down under.

Kate Dolan is a professor and researcher with the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of South Wales. She is travelling across Canada and the U.S. to research managed alcohol programs.

The best way to think of MAP is to see it as a harm reduction program. Men and women who have severe chronic alcoholism make up the program. They have a dedicated spot at Shepherds of Good Hope on the second floor. It's where they sleep. It's where they can socialize with other members of the program.

Each day they get a drink every hour on the half hour from early morning right into the evening. It's a way to manage their alcohol intake. So you can see that the title of the program is pretty self explanatory. But before they start the program, they're assessed. The idea is to manage their alcohol in a controlled, medically supervised environment so that their health isn't more negatively impacted than what it already is from years of excessive drinking. The idea is to reduce harm.

There's another way of looking at MAP. It saves money for the healthcare system. When someone suffers from severe chronic alcoholism, they end up in hospital more often. Their behaviour is more unpredictable. But when they're in MAP, their health is stabilized. It even improves and there are fewer hospital visits.

Some people get hung up on the idea of harm reduction. After all, don't we want to accomplish more than just reduce harm? If the participant is willing, we'll help. But it's not a requirement. Sometimes you have to look at where a person started from in order to truly appreciate where they are today. I can tell you that MAP has turned people's lives around for the better.

When Kate toured our program, she was impressed not only with the harm reduction strategy but with the cost savings to the healthcare system. Kate is one of many researchers/experts who come to Shepherds of Good Hope to study what we do. I hope she returns to Australia with lots of sound ideas on how to help the homeless population there.

If you want to read more about MAP, you can at our programs and services page on our website. I've also provided a link to our donation page if you would like to help the men and women we serve.

Managing alcohol

Last week, Shepherds of Good Hope had a visitor.

Arthur Williams, an MD with the division of substance abuse, Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center, was getting the grand tour through our main building on King Edward, and a visit at The Oaks on Merivale.

We're going to have a story later this week on our website about his visit, so I won't give it all way, but let's just say he was impressed, especially when he got the details on The Oaks.

The Oaks is a supportive living complex made up of two apartment buildings on Merivale. The residents come from Shepherds, Ottawa Inner City Health and the Canadian Mental Health Association.

Many of the people living there are part of MAP - managed alcohol program. Whenever I explain what MAP is, people are astounded. Basically, it's a program for men and women who are chronically homeless and severely addicted to alcohol. We don't start off with the premise that they need to get off alcohol. We have the supports in place that if they eventually want to get to that point, we can help them. But think of those three words - managed alcohol program. That's right, we manage their alcohol intake.

We manage their alcohol intake by giving them a small drink every hour. Not everyone gets the same amount. It depends on their current health situation, their weight, their tolerance, etc. When it's time to get a drink, everyone lines up and staff carefully measure out each person's alcohol one by one. By managing their alcohol intake, the clients are healthier. They can stick around in the common room, have a sandwich, socialize or they can go back to their apartment.

Arthur was quite impressed and noted he didn't know of a similar program anywhere in the U.S. As a researcher, these were the type of innovative programs he was looking at. Not only do they help the homeless who have chronic addictions, they also are cost efficient.

If you would like a tour of one of our innovative programs, just e-mail me.