Given a chance to blossom...
Earlier this year Laura was arrested and sent to Holloway Prison. She was also diagnosed as HIV+. In prison she met New Horizon outreach workers, Pete and Allison, who arranged short-term hostel accommodation for her on her release. But she returned to the chaotic lifestyle as before and now began to feel suicidal.
Now she's an IT whizzkid who educates
other young people about drug misuse.
Pete and Allison referred her to Camden Mental Health Team, who placed her in a secure ward. Our team's intervention then got her into more permanent supported housing.
With help from the local drug dependency unit, she has been on methadone for the past three months.
We visit her at the hostel to support her and make sure she keeps up her prescription. She's no longer self-harming and no longer suicidal.
With our encouragement and support, she attends the New Horizon Women's Opportunities programme, which helps vulnerable young women gain education and lifeskills. She's also beginning to talk through some of her problems with one of our counsellors.
Laura has made some very real improvements in her life.
She's, looking at long-term courses and has already enrolled on a computer and literacy course at the Mary Ward Centre.
She is using her local gym to fill in her time and to help her stay off drugs and she has volunteered as a peer educator at New Horizon, where she is using her experience to teach younger people about the dangers of drug misuse.
