Search Results

I heard on the radio on the way to work yesterday that they are opening places for 'safer drug consumption' in Glasgow. These are going to be places where you can use (but not buy or share) drugs in an environment where there are medical staff on hand to prevent you from overdosing and possibly dying from that overdose. It's going to be trialled over a 3-year period and will cost £2.3 million per year. Apparently, around 100 people die from drug overdoses every month in Scotland at the moment so this scheme is looking to reduce that amount. I suppose that when a person overdoses they are absolutely unable to help themselves at that time and their possible survival is in the hands of others who notice it happening. I know that drugs such as Naloxone can be administered to counteract the effects of the original drug and have a lot of success plus ensuring the person keeps breathing and is kept safe during and immediately after their overdose. I am making connections in my mind to recent training I have had of how to act if one of my students has an epileptic seizure. So, if you were alone somewhere and overdosed on heroin etc, the chances of dying are very high. In one of these places, presumably you would be monitored and assisted if the worst happened. As it was the radio, the mind filled in the blanks as to what the physical set-up would be. I imagine semi-private spaces with an area to recline and toilets/refreshments as standard with probably clean needles available and place to dispose of them afterwards. The medical staff would need their own space to work and support staff to run the admin side. It needs to be appealing enough for people to go there but, as with prisons, there is the idea that it can't be made too attractive or it is said to be encouraging bad behaviour. This brings me to the moral argument around it. Towards the end of the piece on the radio, a speaker condemned the new project as being something that 'will encourage harm' but others mainly focused on saving lives. This debate reminds me of the discussions you hear around the practice in various parts of the world of having legalised brothels. If sex-workers are working in those, they are much safer from disease, crime (theft/violence) and exploitation than if they were running their own trade. However, it still means that sex is being sold or people are still ingesting dangerous toxic substances. Ideally, neither of these things would happen at all...people would only allow substances that enhance their well-being into their bodies and sex would just be between consenting adults as part of a loving and/or mutually satisfying union. HOWEVER, if we are being realistic then we have to admit this is NOT how it is all over the world and hasn't been since time began. I would love there to be more work on why people are choosing or having to choose the more damaging things and support them to make better choices but, in the absence of enough of that, the 'using centres' will very likely save lives.

So this week saw me in full 'professional conversation mode' for nearly two hours, without so much as a wee-wee break. It's basically all you've got verbally, one after the other. If you haven't been to one, you sit at a table with your name in front of you and have the intrigue of meeting the parents (or carers and sometimes siblings too) of the children you have been teaching all year. It's interesting because you get to see how they are in their presence and that's usually much meeker plus if they resemble them (and how) which can be fascinating too. It was also rather amusing for some reason to see that a girl who had implied I was fat when in the middle of a 'situation' in class has a mother three times my size! I think any parent would love to go to these and hear amazing things about their child's academic ability and perhaps even that they are a credit to them behaviour-wise. In the absence of that, just that there aren't any major problems is somewhat of a relief probably. That's the majority. However, there are a few exceptions. I had one student cry because her mother was banging on about how much she 'had invested' in her child's education only to be presented with a mock GCSE grade of 6. For those who don't know this is like a high B in old money. I also had one father blame me for the fact his daughter achieved one grade lower than in last year's mock in year 10. Then there was the father who wouldn't leave the desk until I had given his daughter my best pep talk on career and life. In a 5-minute slot that's not easy...but he wasn't moving until I did. I didn't tell him that he looked exactly like an older version of her in men's clothing and with short hair - that info was just for me!

I have recently decided that when you start to feel better mentally after a period of intense stress, as I just have, you have to jealously guard that new feeling. I would define 'feeling better mentally' as being motivated to do things again and actually liking what you are doing. When your mental state isn't good, not much wholesome stuff can make you feel good and you do what you absolutely HAVE to do without enjoying it. The 'things' that you do can be absolutely anything at all. In my case it's really very boring and mumsy. I had realised I was definitely overspending on my food budget, taking steps to fix that and actually taking some enjoyment and satisfaction from that process. For example, if you have not already heard of it, allow me to introduce you to the world of Too Good To Go, It's basically an app that shows you which shops or eateries predict they will have leftover food that day or the next. You pay a portion (maybe 20 - 40%) of what its retail cost would be but don't know what you will get. Over the last two days I have spent a total of 7,49 in three different places and have had around 37/38ish of bakery pastries and hot breakfast. Better than a kick in the m****, as they say (although you would have had to have experienced both the kick and the TGTG bargains to say for sure! ;=) ) So, back to the guarding...of the new feeling...of being mentally better...after a prolonged stressful time. You might have been basking in it off and on for a few days and then something happens to resurrect those horrible anxious feelings or waves of despair and it feels different. Bad different. I then find it is necessary to actively hang on to that previous, better feeling as though it is a warm coat on a cold day and someone or something is trying to yank it off.