Last night a co-worker of mine was hospitalized after being brutally assaulted by a client at the shelter. I can’t get into the details but the staff member is going to be okay. He was very lucky and I get sick thinking about what could have happened.
It’s weird but despite absorbing a couple of punches over the years and a lot of death threats which isn’t really a part of a normal job, I never think of the job as being particularly dangerous. It’s a community that I am a part of and I love what I do, I forget that some of the people we work with, are damaged and sometimes the demons within can’t be controlled.
Talking with other shelter providers over the last couple of years, some struggle with finding that balance between the need to protect ourselves with the need to be open and accessible. In the exact same spot that the attack took place, I have hundreds of conversations with guys about hundreds of different topics. The same thing that lets us do our jobs well, is what puts us at risk. It’s a weird balance that I don’t think any of us thought about until today.
Today we did. We will tomorrow as well. There will be a lot of talking, listening, reading, and thinking over the next while trying to figure out that balance again.
Walking that fine line between too much risk and inaccessibility requires constantly reminding oneself of who the risk is being taken for and a huge amount of trust. May God guard all of you at the shelter.