Please listen to the audio recordings under each tab below and pick a problem solving partner whose story you want to follow throughout this module.
Aiko has been working as a Construction Labourer in Delta for the past 3 months. She values this job greatly because without it she would not be able to afford rent or groceries.
However, Aiko is “worried” about getting fired, because she has received 2 warnings about being late to work. She has been struggling with getting up on time on workdays. She is often up late spending time with her partner, Sameer, because it’s the only time they can have together. They often do a few hits of meth which causes Aiko to have a hard time falling asleep at night.
On her days off, Aiko often spends it with friends drinking and popping oxys to help her get some sleep and take the edge off of consistently being “worried” about her living situation. She feels “incompetent” and “lazy” because she “can’t get anything right in her life, not even her sleep
Frank has recently moved to Vancouver from Montreal. In this time, he has also made the switch from heroin to fentanyl. Frank explains that he has had to make the switch because fentanyl is “just more bang from my buck.” He often shoots up alone in his room because he wants to “enjoy the high without being bothered by others.”, refusing to use the safe injection site because “they will call the ambulance on [me]”. Remembering his first time in the hospital after overdosing where he felt “unwelcomed” and undeserving of care after he noticed how well other patients were treated compared to himself; he asserts he “never wants to go back to that place!” Frank has overdosed twice in the past few months. He was Narcan’d the first time by a neighbour who knew Frank had just shot up and noticed Frank’s raspy breathing and paling skin. The second time, he was Narcan’d by the housing support worker who had been doing their hourly rounds. Frank has recognized that he should not use alone, yet, he doesn’t have any friends nor trusts anyone around him.
Juanita was given oxycodone by her doctor after a serious car crash. Eight months after the crash, Juanita’s doctor recommended that she should slowly taper off the oxycodone and start going back to work part-time. Juanita, however, found it difficult and “anxiety-inducing” to come off oxycodone because she was still in pain and didn’t believe she could function without them. 3 years after the crash, Juanita now buys heroin which she shoots up 3 to 4 times a day to make sure that she doesn’t go through withdrawal. No one at her work nor her family and friends know about Juanita’s heroin use. She doesn’t want to tell them because “they won’t understand”. She fears that if her family, who are religious, found out they would no longer accept her. She is also “scared” that if her work and other people found out, she would lose her job and have her kids taken from her because “moms don’t do drugs”.