Friday, 3 February 2012

C's

Counselling:  Most homeless people have suffered trauma, counselling, if you want it and feel it would help, is often available free through homeless services or charities or even via the doctor's surgery very occasionally.

Cold: An enemy and killer of homeless people, I have an advantage of being friends with the cold and having worked outside in the cold all my working life and having spent a lot of my childhood in the cold and in unheated places, I do like to bew warm and cozy at night though.

Cold can disrupt sleep even on summer nights, and it can be hard to be prepared for changes in the weather sometimes, wear layers and stash or carry extra clothes. Have a thermal layer stashed, keep your head and neck covered, especially at night, carry an emergency blanket at all times. keep a supply of disposable handwarmers that are avalable cheaply in a lot of places. Don't stay out in the weather for the sake of it, even though it is tempting, shelter in libraries or shops or churches, or even daycentres. If you cannot cope with the cold or living indoors, the council will provide an emergency shelter when the temperature goes down and stays down below freezing for a number of days at a time in winter. You can also take a temporary nightshelter bed if there is one. I have stopped being able to live in night shelters but I take a bed at a friend's house sometimes, which may be another option to some rough sleepers if they are clean, presentable and honest. Keep drinking hot drinks in cold weather, wear a hat, scarf and gloves - you don't need to be told that, but I wore a hat, scarf and gloves for the first time as a rough sleeper in winter.
Wash your hands and wrists in hot water before putting your gloves on if you can.

Have spare bedding and an extra stash of bedding in winter, keep going to different churches and find the one that will offer you hot drinks and a few minutes out of the cold and maybe extra jumpers and blankets etc, eat as well as you can and go to soup kitchen at night.
Keep your hat, scarf and gloves on at night and wrap a blanket round your head and shoulders, have as much cardboard and bedding underneath you as possible when you bed down.

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