Manuela’s booklet for positive memories
- Kim Dijkman
- 06/08/2020
In short:
- Approach: Create a booklet to focus on beautiful moments
- Time investment: 1 hour
- Costs: 10-50 euro
- Resources: App to print photos in polaroidformat
- Element for success: Address the things going well
score:
0
Creativity :
0Feasibility :
0Result :
0Total :
0
For already seven years Manuela lives without a permanent residence In the beginning she regularly spent the night with friends, but gradually she ended up in a shelter more often. She gets severely addicted to alcohol. To never have to go without, she always carries a bottle of vodka and orange juice with her. When Manuela and four other homeless people wander around the city, she sees an former collegue from the incurance company she used to work as an administrator. Luckely she's wearing a cap on her head. She hides, so she doesn't have to talk to him. She's afraid that someone from her past will ask something like: "Hey Manuela, how are you doing? What do you do nowadays?"
Relapse
Finally Manuela gets a house via Discus. She had been trying to withdraw from alcohol for a while by then. What else do you wish for? If Manuela wants something, Discus is there to help her. Everything is possible. If she wants to talk about difficult topics, she can call them right away. Nothing is too crazy. Manuela is terribly tired from living on the streets. Only when she has a fight with the neighbor for the first time, she realizes that she's starting to settle down. When more rests starts to come, memories come back from the seven years that she threw away on the streets. Frustrated Manuela has bad sleep for weeks. The temptation to start drinking again grows. It grows to big. First she drinks a glass every now and then. It slowly gets more and in the end she drinks a lot every day. After this setback, she is disappointed and angry with herself.
New positivity
Juwe, her social worker, focuses on the good things as much as possible, despite of the setbacks. “A lot of negative things happened in the past, but you are also making new, positive memories." according to Juwe. Juwe shows their with their actionplan everything the archieved already: a collective roadtrip to Brabant to visite Manuela's mother. Juwe's colegues came by one day to enjoy a Christmas-lunch made by Manuela. In addition, Manuela works as a volunteer with fellow sufferers, a helpline for anyone dealing with psychological problems or addiction. People who are homeless call regularly. Manuela gives tips on how to conquer a place on the street, how to survive.
New memories
Most of the beautifull moments Juwe catches by making a picture with her phone. Via an app she has a number of beautiful photos with matching captions printed in polaroid format. At Hema she buys stickers that she pastes together with the photos in a booklet. During a homevisite Manuela receives the booklet as a present. She is intensely happy with it. In difficult moments it is a great tool to change her mind. At the end of the book there are still some blank pages. Place for new memories to be pictured.
- share:
Kim Dijkman
Mooie dingen (mee)maken!
Werkt bij HVO Querido als Persoonlijk begeleider
Read all my stories
