Jimmy’s Story

Homeless Health Team nursing staff agreed and expressed real concern over his failing health. Jimmy, 56, has a history
of homelessness and has been sleeping rough awaiting housing as hostel environments proved unsuitable to meet his
complex support needs.

Jimmy suffers from various health issues; both mental and physical. He battles a heroin and crack addiction and has serious mobility issues. His issues with mental health have been exacerbated after the sudden death of his child.

In November 2018, Borderline began supporting Jimmy. At this point, we encouraged him to seek bereavement counselling. However, the longer he remained on the street, the more difficult this became but gradually Jimmy sought our support to address his homelessness once and for all.

Borderline called a case conference, bringing together housing, drug and health services to discuss how best to support Jimmy. As a result, he started attending health and drug support services to finally start tackling his addiction issues. Over the next few months, he continued with this, but had still not been offered appropriate housing and so quickly began to lose faith.

Alex, one of Borderline’s Scottish Outreach Workers, advocated on Jimmy’s behalf and again called a meeting of all agencies to request that a suitable alternative was made available. Shortly after, Jimmy successfully moved in to Bruce House accommodation, which provides self-contained flats and ongoing support for its residents.

Jimmy has started a new program to address his addiction and, when he is ready, will be referred to one of our specialist partners, Camden Psychotherapy Unit, for intensive counselling to address unresolved mental health issues affecting his recovery.

Now, Jimmy is in a safe space, no longer sleeping rough. Borderline continues to support him and liaise with all support services involved. He has a real chance to turn his life around.

If you are able to support fellow Scots like Jimmy at this time, please visit our donations page. 

*Names are confidential to protect the anonymity of our clients