A thought for today

I attended a morning meeting at Housing First on West Fountain today.

Housing First, part of Riverwood Mental health, reaches out to the chronically homeless - doing whatever necessary to put a permanant roof over their heads.

As we went around the table introducing ourselves, Riverwood's clinical supervisor shared his name, title, and then a few words that left me refreshed.

He said,

"I work with people. Not bi-polars. Not schizos. I work with...people."

Ahhh. Living, breathing, heart-beating, metally aware, deliberating social beings. Not any lesser than you or I. As worthy and deserving of a leg up as the rest of us.

This idea is seemingly PC, but I think it's all too easy to subconciously fall into the "us" and "them" trap.

At the end of the day, I'm still going home to my warm bed. And my clients, the people I work with - my fellow humans - don't have that same advantage.