26 Simon Communities in Ireland “I just don’t want to go back there hostel because you get stuck in there, you just kind of give up on yourself. You end up there too long.” (Grace, 31) “I’m stressed out and I just don’t see, I just can’t go through with it, everything’s getting worse like, instead of getting better … I suppose we’re all in the same boat down there hostel, we all rely on drink or drugs and we don’t see any other future.” (Roisín, 37) Those women who had embarked on a cycle of service use perhaps had the advantage of ‘knowing’ the system and many were guided by their long-standing experience of accessing homeless services. Equally, however, they were acutely aware that their homelessness was enduring and most could not foresee a resolution to their situations in the near future. Patterns of ‘Institutional Cycling’ “From the time I was born until now I have been basically, one way or another, a part of the system.” (Fionnula, 58) Twelve women in the sample reported histories of State care and many had spent prolonged periods in one or more institutional settings, including residential alcohol or drug treatment services, psychiatric hospitals and/or prison. Four of the older women in the sample had spent a significant proportion of their childhoods in an industrial school or orphanage and these women invariably talked about the long-lasting negative impact of this experience. These women typically reported significant trauma as well as mental ill-health and socialisation problems, which they attributed to the legacy of abuse and neglect within institutional settings. Fionnula told that she was “born into homelessness” when she was abandoned by her mother when she was 6 months old. She was raised in a homeless service where she experienced neglect prior to her transfer to an industrial school where she experienced physical and psychological abuse until she left at the age of 16 years. The following account describes the negative impact of growing up in an industrial school. “Growing up in an industrial school we were starved of parents, we were starved of love … it has affected my life grossly… I would say a lot of children who grew up in institutions either became alcoholics, they became drug addicts, they became prostitutes, they became homeless, or they committed suicide. They opted out.” (Fionnula, 58) A large number of these women viewed their ‘position’ or presence within homeless (and other) services as an extension of a pattern of institutionalisation that started during their childhood years: “I always felt like coming from care and then going back into like homeless services it was a bit like going back into care again, you know in a way” (Rosie, 38). Many reported poor socialisation and general life skills which hampered their ability to fully engage and interact with others – including service providers – as well as with broader societal structures and systems. “It was very hard in care, and you’d learn like not to socialise with some people because I don’t know them and stuff, so that was kind of a bit hard too.” (Ruth, 24)
Women, Homelessness and Service Provision
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