Should I have done something?

[poppetandmog]

I’m down in London for work today. I was walking back to the train station via St James’s Park and saw a man sitting in the middle of the grass injecting his bare feet (I assume heroine but who knows.) He looked completely out of it and I guess I was a bit shocked that someone would do this so publicly at 4pm when there were kids around. Weirdly, no one else passing him seemed remotely phased, so perhaps this kind of thing isn’t unusual in London. I can’t stop thinking about the man. It didn’t feel safe to approach him, not sure what good that would have done anyway, but can’t help but think I should have done something.

Definitely shouldn't have approached him

Just call the police if it happens again x

I see this occasionally. It is uncomfortable and sad to see, but in reality nothing you say or do in that moment is going to help the man.

Don’t get between an addict and his fix, especially if he’s far gone enough to have run out of more convenient veins and to be shooting up between his toes in a park in the middle of the day. Nothing you can do, and it might be dangerous.

Just leave well alone contact the police if you like they will most likely know all about him

Thanks everyone. Someone in my family was an addict so I suppose it’s triggered me a little. I know the personal impact, but agree probably nothing good would have come of approaching him. Very sad situation.

I used to live in a flat, when I was a student, opposite one that was full of addicts. You could see into their kitchen from mine, and they'd be sat there injecting. my landlord owned both houses. When I complained all he did was tell them to put a sheet over the window.
There isn't much you can do for an addict. By the time they're on the street, it's often too late.

Part of my life involves street homeless people, and some have addictions.

There is very little you can do for someone at that exact moment in their lives (beyond helping them inject safely which I wouldn't generally recommend)
It literally isn't the moment to try and approach someone.

Generally the police will just force them to get out out of public view, if they actually have the resources to attend in the first place. It's low down on the public nuisance spectrum.

I've just finished working last nights informal pop up street kitchen and community aid pitch night shift.
It keeps people of all levels of street living going, creates community and self help, and works to try to raise quality of lives, through everything from food and abscess care, to getting folk involved in writing and performance groups, and helps those who can be propelled upwards when they are receptive.

Every bit of what we use to provide services, comes from people who care.

We could do more if we had more. If you want to do something, make a donation (or volunteer) to any of the front line services trying to help people who are scraping through street survival. Most are operating on shoe string budgets.

There are huge numbers trying to survive on London's streets, some with severe substance addictions, most with broken MH, some just quietly broken, a few there by choice, and increasingly, working tent dwellers whose housing has gone, being sucked downwards.

Most are malnourished and winter's on it's way. Donate is the something you can do.