The Oaks is a busy place. People come and go, passing from the street by the front counter into the main room. Throughout the common rooms and outside people sit, mostly by themselves. The smell of stale alcohol hangs in the air wherever you go.
As a managed alcohol program, it makes sense. Workers give 7 oz of alcohol to residents in the morning and 5 oz every hour thereafter. You don’t see intoxication in the morning, but you can in the evening, says Carefor Client Care Worker (CCW), Courtney McIntosh. “They’ve been drinking all day. It catches up.”
Courtney has been a CCW at The Oaks on Merivale Road for almost 11 years. As the name suggests, his role is to help care for the residents who live at The Oaks. “We take care of the clients active daily living,” explains Courtney. “Medication, showering, assist with meals, set up appointments, all the good stuff. Laundry…you name it, we do it.”
Christal Brownlee, Program Manager for Shepherds of Good Hope expands on the role of the CCW, “They support with everything from behavioural management to support with their meals, addressing their individual needs that they may not recognize”
The Oaks is operated by Shepherds of Good Hope but what goes inside is a partnership between Shepherds who provides staff to run the building’s day to day including preparing meals and providing drinks to residents, Carefor who provides the CCWs and Ottawa Inner City Health who provides nursing support. The building houses up to 60 people all of whom are not only battling alcoholism but also often mental health issues.
Increasingly staff are also dealing with an aging population and all the issues that go along with it, including greater physical and mental challenges such as dementia. “It is a retirement home for people who are battling some real personal challenges,” says Kaelen Bray, Director of Client Care for Personal Support Services and Inner City.
“You may be a tenant, but we will wrap around [Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA)] services if we can and they need them,” says Christal. “This can be something as simple as putting themselves at risk, not eating. We identify these things so we can reach out to CMHA and ideally those external workers and get them involved.”
As the name managed alcohol program suggests, The Oaks follows a harm reduction model whereby housing and supports are offered to help mitigate risks which go along with the impact of alcoholism on residents. “We try and keep people in house as long as we possibly can,” says Christal. “For many individuals this is their home. We meet people exactly where they’re at. The stigma that comes with our clientele is very important to us. We don’t want them to feel displaced. We don’t want them to feel unwelcomed. We have people who have been here since the conception of the program (14 years). People are here as long as they need to be here.”
There is no one path to The Oaks. Every person living there has a story. Kevin Nyembo, Carefor Inner City Supervisor says that while there are a lot of mental health issues that start the journey to The Oaks for many residents, trauma also plays a large part. “We have residents who are ex-RCMP, ex-military,” says Kevin.
You can see the impact of hard lives having been lived on the people in The Oaks. It’s 8:45 in the morning. Some people head to the garden in the back parking lot for a smoke that they just rolled, others stay inside and sit. The next drink will be poured in 15 minutes.
While mostly people keep to themselves there is a sense of togetherness in the struggle for today and tomorrow. No pressure or expectations, just people getting through it together. The staff offer support, stability and safe place in a not so safe world.
Heading into his 11th year at the program, Courtney knows that what he’s doing matters. “It is the satisfaction that comes from knowing that you’re doing something for somebody,” he says. “You go home knowing you made a difference.”