Those are the people who died, died.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

So I got to thinking . .
Malach has been working in disability services since 1997. In that time, he has had several cleints who have died (and two who have killed other people). 6 that I can think of, there might be more, perhaps clients I have not seen in a number of years. But that is the risk of working with the disabled. Of the six 2 have been murdered, two have committed suicide, and the rest died for health reasons. 6 in ten years? I am not really sure what the average rate is.

What brought on this thought was a client I have wrote about here before. He has been "missing" for the past 2 weeks (not uncommon for the homeless). This morning, I was informed by a reliable and connected source, that he had been found dead, hung from a tree with a plastic bag over his head in Dartmouth, MA. Luckily, I found him later, at the hotel he has been staying at, and he is not dead.

So again, it got me thinking about my dead former clients. Interestingly, Malach has the most dead clients of anyone else in my office, except for a couple of people who have 30 more years of work experience than I do. So, I decided to write a little about each of them to honor them.

Bob: Bob was a elderly gentleman who had severe cerebal palsy (CP) at my first human services job. By the time I first got to meet and interact with him, he was already 70, so not only did he have the CP issues, he also had the age issues. He was basically wheelchair bound, with severe speech impediments and such. What I remember most about Bob; he was a huge Red Sox fan, he used to tell stories about his wild days when younger, and the crazy stories other people told me about him. Bob died of natural causes.

Timmy: Timmy was a mildly mentally retarded client of mine. In his mid 20's, very street smart, he lived with a roommate, in one of the worst sections of New Bedford. Very active and well known in the gay and drag queen community (there is a large community of them in New Bedford, Timmy was very a out spoken advocate for gay and disabled rights. Always flamboyantly dressed (I remember a very poofy blouse with embrodiered greek pottery on it), usually with thick make up, though usually having pretty bad hygiene, that was Timmy, a bit of a puzzle. I worked on Tim's vocational case for a number of years, and he was fun. Timmy was killed in a drug deal gone wrong. No ones really sure if he was an innocent bystander or not.

Justinho: Justinho was another mildly mentally retared man, with a dual diagnosis of schizophrenia. Justinho was a lot of fun, and very hard worker, very proud of his hispanic heritage, and always helpful and nice. I worked with him for about a year, and one day his pyschosis took over and he snapped. Luckily New Bedford has pretty good crisis intervention systems, and he ended up committed for almost 2 months. We he came back, he was not the same, the fun loving nice guy was replaced by a shell of a person. He committed suicide 4 days later cutting his wrists, and then running out onto a busy highway. I believe he was 32 year old.

Rene: Rene might have been the hardest one. I knew Rene before she became disabled. She was my age, and went to the rival high school to mine a half a mile down the street. She was movie star gorgeous, and at the same time, very nice. In her twenties Rene had a stroke. Come to find out she had a very rare genetic disorder, a mitochondrial disorder, that prevented her mitchondria from producing energy. When I was reintroduce to Rene, we were both in our mid 20's. She was boderline intellectual functioning, and frail. In the two last years of her life, I helped her find an apartment to live on her own, and get a job as a greeter at Wal-Mart. Even with her disabilities, Rene had this inner light, and was very good hearted, and never mad about her situation. They absolutely loved her at Wal-Mart, and customers loved her too. Rene ended up suffering a relapse of her stoke symptoms, and she ended full time in hospital care. After a month, she was released to a nursing facility. A week later she died. She was 27 years old. I remember her wake and funeral, and the entire Wal-Mart stores in the area showing up.

Darlene: Darlene was a homeless woman, who was living in the woods for a couple of years. My organization got her out of the woods, and helped he get her life back on track. Darlene had an inoperable brain tumor, that not only caused great physical discomfort, it caused pyschosis like symptoms. I helped Darlene get a place to live, I assisted her with her health and her mental health issues, reunited her with her son, and made the last year of her life, much more pleasant. She died suddenly after Christmas in 2005, after a party we helped her throw for her son, and his friends.

Joe: Joe was a man in his mid 20's. He was boderline intellectual function, and also explosive disorder. When he came to me, he had just gotten out of prison for beating to death his girlfriend with an alarm clock (16 at the time). Joe, while somewhat abrasive, was a very hard worker, and loved to work. While severely paranoid, I assisted him in not only finding a job, but keeping it. I also began meeting him a couple times a week for lunch, to talk about life. It seemed to really help him learn how to be a member of society and control his anger. Unfortunately he was on a program that only lasted 18 months. I lost touch with Joe after that. Evidently he had moved to the Boston area. One day, he attacked one of his neighbors, coming close to killing him. When the police arrived, Joe ran out the door and down the street; Police in tow. What I have been told is that Joe, stopped, picked up a pipe, and charged 5 officers. They had to shoot him, and even then, he kept coming. They basically had no choice but shoot again and make sure stayed down. Come to find out, Joe, had decompensated, tried to commit suicide, but couldn't (sounds like Joe). It seems he tried to get the attention of the police, and while not proven, did the old suicide by cop trick.

Now doesn't Malach have an interesting job.

I am Malach and this is dedicated to my dead clients.