The Problems We Can't Help, and The Ones We Can

A few weeks ago I got an email from Chris, our Nurse Practitioner, that he thought would make a good post for the blog:

"As a consultant and part-time employee for BCI's-MM2 Program (Newark site), I have noticed firsthand the effects of our economy in crisis. I have witnessed recently at least three clients who have been laid off or who are living with the daily fear of losing their employment... These consumers have earned their position in the MM2 program. Most have been drug-free for several years plus. They are so proud of their accomplishments including buying their own home with their own money. Now the economy has taken a terrible turn for the worse with no certain timeframe for recovery. This enormous stress and burden for our consumers may be too much. This financial burden may be an unforeseen trigger for RELAPSE. I can only try to be optimistic, empathize and offer support for our consumers during this dismal transition.”

Well, I didn’t post this right away. I thought it was missing something. Honestly, it was kind of a downer. Yeah, the economy’s bad – tell us something we don’t know. I wanted to at least leave the reader with some hopeful moral, or some call to action, but nothing came to mind.

Yesterday, Chris asked me about the post, and I still hadn’t found my ending. He wasn’t sure what to add either. So the conversation moved on, and he started telling me about a recent evening at our Newark site. It was one of those long, cold, winter days and they were waiting for the last client of the day before they could close and go home. The client came in, and picked up her medication, and when she went to leave, she had a flat tire. So Chris helped her change the tire. Then, there was something else wrong with the car and she needed someone to give her a ride. So Chris waited until she got a ride home, even though it was late, and cold, and the end of a long day. “Well, I couldn’t just leave her there!” he said.

So after he told me all this, I asked, why didn’t you send me that story for the blog? Not only does it have a nice ending, but it gives me the ending I wanted for the first story. Because even in these tough economic times, for every seemingly hopeless story, there is another hopeful story somewhere.