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Anger has a um a bad reputation, but
anger can also be a powerful motivator.
Staff member rang me recently and she
said, "I have an 83y old woman living
under a bridge." The woman said to my
worker in a trembly old 83y old voice,
"If you could just get me a room for a
couple of nights, I'll go back to the
bridge."
83 years old.
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I mean, if these stories don't don't
make your blood boil, there's something
wrong, isn't there? I mean, there has to
be an element of controlled anger in my
work. There has to be. I started as a
young social worker at a homeless
person's night shelter in Melbourne. I
saw acts of um want and kindness, but I
saw horrific scenes of brutality. Into
all of that male stream, I saw elderly,
frail people who shouldn't have been in
such an environment. And uh so my whole
effort was trying to get them out and
into quality and secure housing where
they had some level of security and um
and people cared about them.
Winter works with people who society is
abandoned. They're often uh isolated and
lonely and frightened. So we feel that
they should have access to good quality
age care. First two years I was the only
employee but it is now grown to be the
largest provider of housing and age care
services for elderly homeless people.
Primarily it starts off with housing um
and social work services for people who
are vulnerable through to u full age
care services whether it's firstly in
the home which is homes that we would
either build or be public housing or
then it goes to nursing homes. Winryham
in fact has the the first nursing home
for homeless people in Australia and
probably the first one in the world.
One of the inspiring things is to see
elderly homeless people who arrive tail
between their legs, frightened,
timbered, and slowly opening up like a
like a flower and um and starting to
learn to trust. And then the crowning
achievement is when they start to
complain.
That's that's such a wonderful
experience when a homeless person looks
at you and says, "The food's shit."
It means that they they know they're not
going to get evicted. They're not going
to get punched for complaining. They are
rejoining the human race. It's so
exciting when that happens.
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