Ryan Dowd is the executive director of a large homeless shelter who also gives training to libraries, police departments, nonprofits, hospitals and other organizations around the world.
90% of homeless people have mainly economic issues and are homeless for less than a year. Most issues are caused by the 10% who are chronically homeless.
Common issues of people living in chronic homelessness:
- Schizophrenia-18%
- Bipolar-19%- manic phases can be very disruptive
- Traumatic Brain Injury-53%
- Substance abuse-72%
- Personality disorder-79%- can look just like "being a jerk"
- Trauma-100%
The most vulnerable can be most challenging - it's not intentional "meanness". Trauma increases the risk of violence by 900%. It leads to PTSD, which 100% of chronically homeless have vs. 29% of military veterans.
Trauma changes the brain- causes flight-or-flight response from the amygdala when in conflict- it's like a guard dog protecting the person. People with PTSD are anxious all the time- even before anything happens. PTSD causes people to misperceive threat stimuli and have emotional dysregulation.
The first 5 seconds are the most important- you don't want to activate the amygdala.
What causes activation vs not:
- Danger vs. safety
- Disrespect vs. respect
Respect is the most effective strategy.
Body language best practices;
- Place your body at angle as if there was a 3rd person there-- shoulders at 45%.
- Switch between looking at feet and eye contact.
- Lean in.
Introduce yourself and say hello in this order:
- Say "hello".
- Offer your first name.
- Ask their name.
- Shake their hand, if you feel OK with that.
No one gives them these tiny courtesies.
Compliance:
- Test for compliance- are they willing to work with me?
- Ask them if they can talk somewhere else- if they do, that's a good sign- audiences create problems -sense of disrespect will be amplified.
- Don't rush-it may take longer than you like, but it's better than escalation/calling the police.
- Compliance increases compliance.
- If they don't comply, give them 100% attention -red flag- may need backup.
The final takeaway-empathy is the answer.
- Register here to attend the training for free.
- Handout.
- Additional courses-part 2-5 of de-escalation, crisis series, special populations and special situations.
--Andrea H @GLCL
