I have honestly been so caught up in the spring/summer challenges that I have not been able to just sit down and write again. I have had so many days that have been just so hard I need to remind myself to take a break and breathe!
I believe that I have shared with you how we drug and alcohol test some of our residents. We usually only do that when we have been "tipped off" by another resident or we already know that the person has addiction issues. Not everyone in our homes has these issues or challenges so, with that said, in the past couple of weeks we have had to deal with one of our client/residents using again. She purchased "fake" urine just so the test would be "clean" and denied any wrongdoing on her part. Prior to us testing her the roommates let us know that she was up all night and day (two days) and was cooking all of the food in the house that she could find only to throw it all out! That is almost a crime, right? We told her to leave the property with her belongings never to come back.
No one would have guessed that this once calm, kind and caring person would become so violent and agitated that we would have to get the sheriff's department involved. With threats by her to kill everyone in the house and burn it down we knew we had someone different on our hands. We trespassed her verbally via the sheriff's department thinking that it would suffice. But It did not help matters at all. A few days later she showed up at the house that she was evicted from with a blow torch and a knife. She was told by the sheriff to leave immediately. They did not arrest her surprisingly. A few days later she tagged my work van with a nasty word and a note written to me, threatening me. A day later she went back to the house in the early hours of the morning and tried to rip an air conditioner out of a window and kick the front door down! Needless to say, she scared everyone in the house! The Sheriff was called again but then she disappeared before she could be arrested.
We had a couple days recently where we had no problems coming from her behavior only to find out that it was because she was in the mental health hospital. We have since pressed formal charges against her so, we shall see what happens next. Now, we watch ourselves everywhere we go and lock the doors to the office. We still carry on even though I would like to quit some days because for every one person like that we have another 60 amazing people to help and work with. :)