by Virginia Denton
Comment: Wow, I wrote to you yesterday regarding rampant untreated mental illness in the female homeless population I am seeing. I just visited a website "Bridges" a new Acute Inpatient Psych Treatment facility in Englewood. You should google them. The website says they are helping with the critical shortage of acute psychiatric beds in CO now that so many mental health facilities have closed. CO has the worst ratio of beds to acute psychiatric facilities in the USA. Fort Logan just had 59 adult inpatient beds close. NO WONDER I SEE all the very mentally ill in the streets and shelters! Its a nightmare. I stay away from the homeless men they scare the hell out of me. Thanks for being there.
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I was recently evicted from "Hope communities" a federal HUD housing program for the disabled. The apartment manager evicts the most disabled from the complex on a regular basis, as I was. Im 60 years old, was an RN for 25 years and have been denied SSDI 3 times. I have complex PTSD from sexual trauma as a child and again as an adult. Being homeless is the most traumatic thing I think Ive ever experienced. Ive been approached and told I need to sell my body by 3 different men downtown, which aggravates my symptoms and nightmares. The anxiety and stress from just trying to find a safe shelter at night is the most Ive ever encountered and I worked in the ER and psychiatry. The cops treat you horribly when you ask for help. Nothing is worse on earth than being cold and homeless in a big city at night. Ive been suicidal but try to hold on. Thank you so much for your caring and support.
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I feel really sorry for myself until I see all these other women who are homeless! Women older and much more disabled than I am. I get so angry at the government for allowing women to live like this. The competition to get into the very very limited spaces for homeless women is incredible. In the VOA womans emergency shelter the conditions are absolutely pathetic. No soap or TP in the bathrooms. We are fed bread and peanut butter sandwiches every night. I tried to file a complaint regarding the conditions there staff would not give me a form and told me I should feel grateful to be there because its free. I have of course contracted an upper respiratory infection as I knew I would listening to the nasty coughs in that place where we are placed on mats 3 inches apart every night. I saw a nurse practicioner at the Stout Street Clinic named Katie and she was very compassionate and good at her job. That's a wonderful service! The staff treat us like prisoners and/or little children in the Brandon/Theodora house and the VOA shelters-they will kick you out for any infraction of the rules and act like prison guards. I go to the Gathering Place during the day and see more homeless and very disabled women there. Its a nice place with good food and showers and even a counselor and nurses. Ive tried to get into battered women's shelter they are all always full. Must be a lot of battered women out there. I have worked in an animal shelter and cannot understand why dogs and cats are treated so much better than women. The VOA volunteers mentioned that the city is working on more shelters for women. I also go to the Senior Support Services on 18th and Emerson and seeing all the very old, mentally unstable and untreated people homeless there is very depressing also. I am usually one of 2 or 3 women among about 60 men there and its very uncomfortable for me. I like to avoid men whenever possible. I got into the Delores Project for women this week so my stress level is better-its a nice place for women but again the competition to get in is insane. The "lotteries" for a spot in the shelters make me sick. There should be space for everyone who needs it. Women should not be allowed to be sleeping in the streets. They tell me they ride the bus all night sometimes to be safe.
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Hello! I wanted to discuss mental illnesses I'm seeing in the homeless women I've been sheltering with for the past 2 months. I was an RN for 25 years with about 5 years working in-Patient psychiatry. There is extreme amounts of depression even schizophrenia and bipolar in the homeless population. I see quite a bit of psychosis. For example 3 of the women in my room are responding to internal stimuli they're totally in their own little world talking and laughing to themselves. 1 screams at her possessions constantly. Tons of depression- you should see the faces and flat affects on these women as they're waiting in line you need a picture of that. Almost all of them, as I am, are trauma patients. My bed neighbor over there told me she had been hit in the head with a hammer she has a head injury and that she beat herself up. That was hard to believe but I saw her in the park doing it as I rode by on the bus this morning. Its really pitiful it's worse than an animal shelter with abused animals, another place I've worked. Thanks for being there!
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Speaking of trauma I was molested as a child, my 11 yr old sister was raped in her bed in a bedroom we shared when I was 15 and I chased that guy off, I was sexually assaulted by a man who says been executed in my report to the police was ignored resulting in another woman being killed by him after I reported it and told them where he worked. and since I've been homeless I've been revictimized several times a day wandering around in the streets downtown. I've had at least three men some young proposition me for sex, and I'm sixty years old! a PTSD specialist with the Board of Nursing told me that if marijuana helps me with my anxiety I should keep using it so I do I have a red card. I also have psoriasis wish I could track it during my nursing career after having strep throat. PTSD and psoriasis or both affected by stress and anxiety. being homeless has the most stressful thing I've ever been through yet I get kicked out of the shelters because I use marijuana my doctor prescribed. I got kicked out of the Gathering Place because I smelled like marijuana one day. I wasn't hurting a soul. the brand and center for battered women kicked me out back into the street because I drug tested positive for marijuan. These places and having homeless Women running around the streets just set you up for more trauma.
Comment: Wow, I wrote to you yesterday regarding rampant untreated mental illness in the female homeless population I am seeing. I just visited a website "Bridges" a new Acute Inpatient Psych Treatment facility in Englewood. You should google them. The website says they are helping with the critical shortage of acute psychiatric beds in CO now that so many mental health facilities have closed. CO has the worst ratio of beds to acute psychiatric facilities in the USA. Fort Logan just had 59 adult inpatient beds close. NO WONDER I SEE all the very mentally ill in the streets and shelters! Its a nightmare. I stay away from the homeless men they scare the hell out of me. Thanks for being there.
---
I was recently evicted from "Hope communities" a federal HUD housing program for the disabled. The apartment manager evicts the most disabled from the complex on a regular basis, as I was. Im 60 years old, was an RN for 25 years and have been denied SSDI 3 times. I have complex PTSD from sexual trauma as a child and again as an adult. Being homeless is the most traumatic thing I think Ive ever experienced. Ive been approached and told I need to sell my body by 3 different men downtown, which aggravates my symptoms and nightmares. The anxiety and stress from just trying to find a safe shelter at night is the most Ive ever encountered and I worked in the ER and psychiatry. The cops treat you horribly when you ask for help. Nothing is worse on earth than being cold and homeless in a big city at night. Ive been suicidal but try to hold on. Thank you so much for your caring and support.
---
I feel really sorry for myself until I see all these other women who are homeless! Women older and much more disabled than I am. I get so angry at the government for allowing women to live like this. The competition to get into the very very limited spaces for homeless women is incredible. In the VOA womans emergency shelter the conditions are absolutely pathetic. No soap or TP in the bathrooms. We are fed bread and peanut butter sandwiches every night. I tried to file a complaint regarding the conditions there staff would not give me a form and told me I should feel grateful to be there because its free. I have of course contracted an upper respiratory infection as I knew I would listening to the nasty coughs in that place where we are placed on mats 3 inches apart every night. I saw a nurse practicioner at the Stout Street Clinic named Katie and she was very compassionate and good at her job. That's a wonderful service! The staff treat us like prisoners and/or little children in the Brandon/Theodora house and the VOA shelters-they will kick you out for any infraction of the rules and act like prison guards. I go to the Gathering Place during the day and see more homeless and very disabled women there. Its a nice place with good food and showers and even a counselor and nurses. Ive tried to get into battered women's shelter they are all always full. Must be a lot of battered women out there. I have worked in an animal shelter and cannot understand why dogs and cats are treated so much better than women. The VOA volunteers mentioned that the city is working on more shelters for women. I also go to the Senior Support Services on 18th and Emerson and seeing all the very old, mentally unstable and untreated people homeless there is very depressing also. I am usually one of 2 or 3 women among about 60 men there and its very uncomfortable for me. I like to avoid men whenever possible. I got into the Delores Project for women this week so my stress level is better-its a nice place for women but again the competition to get in is insane. The "lotteries" for a spot in the shelters make me sick. There should be space for everyone who needs it. Women should not be allowed to be sleeping in the streets. They tell me they ride the bus all night sometimes to be safe.
---
Hello! I wanted to discuss mental illnesses I'm seeing in the homeless women I've been sheltering with for the past 2 months. I was an RN for 25 years with about 5 years working in-Patient psychiatry. There is extreme amounts of depression even schizophrenia and bipolar in the homeless population. I see quite a bit of psychosis. For example 3 of the women in my room are responding to internal stimuli they're totally in their own little world talking and laughing to themselves. 1 screams at her possessions constantly. Tons of depression- you should see the faces and flat affects on these women as they're waiting in line you need a picture of that. Almost all of them, as I am, are trauma patients. My bed neighbor over there told me she had been hit in the head with a hammer she has a head injury and that she beat herself up. That was hard to believe but I saw her in the park doing it as I rode by on the bus this morning. Its really pitiful it's worse than an animal shelter with abused animals, another place I've worked. Thanks for being there!
----------
Speaking of trauma I was molested as a child, my 11 yr old sister was raped in her bed in a bedroom we shared when I was 15 and I chased that guy off, I was sexually assaulted by a man who says been executed in my report to the police was ignored resulting in another woman being killed by him after I reported it and told them where he worked. and since I've been homeless I've been revictimized several times a day wandering around in the streets downtown. I've had at least three men some young proposition me for sex, and I'm sixty years old! a PTSD specialist with the Board of Nursing told me that if marijuana helps me with my anxiety I should keep using it so I do I have a red card. I also have psoriasis wish I could track it during my nursing career after having strep throat. PTSD and psoriasis or both affected by stress and anxiety. being homeless has the most stressful thing I've ever been through yet I get kicked out of the shelters because I use marijuana my doctor prescribed. I got kicked out of the Gathering Place because I smelled like marijuana one day. I wasn't hurting a soul. the brand and center for battered women kicked me out back into the street because I drug tested positive for marijuan. These places and having homeless Women running around the streets just set you up for more trauma.
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