Street Youth Ministry: A Dream and Challenge

Feb 10, 2012

A Dream and Challenge

"Why won't someone help me now?"

At least twice a month, I have a young client, usually somewhere between 23 and 28, come up to me and say, cry or scream: "I've had it. I'm at the end of my rope. Can you get me into rehab? I want to go TODAY!" After 3 years of doing this, I have never seen someone get into rehab the same day. I promise to make some phone calls and ask to meet them the next day. The phone calls typically means leaving messages. It means eventually learning after many phone calls that a rehab "bed" won't be open for several weeks. I meet with the client and explain to them. And their response is usually, "I can't wait that long. I might as well just go overdose and die. Or maybe I should go to another city. Why won't someone help me now?"

It's a reasonable question. There are logical answers, but this client population doesn't have the patience and even sometimes the planning skills to work with a three week window.

It is my dream to find a way to have a bed available at within 24 hours of a client seeking help. No they don't have insurance. Yes they need detoxification and medical check-up. No they probably don't have ID. And yes, they have all sorts of potential co-existing issues. If not a bed, then a temporary safe house where they can stay until the recovery bed becomes available. These are missed opportunities to enable someone to turn their life around. It's missed opportunities to allow a person to find true meaning and significance in recovery. It's a dream I know. And I can think of all the practical obstacles to achieving the dream. I pray it becomes a reality in Austin somehow nevertheless.

Do you have any ideas? Do you think it is a dream we can make come true in the future? Leave us a comment.