16 Dec 2020
Richard is 25 years old and suffers from schizophrenia He joined Bruce Grove in 2019 when he found himself homeless after being taken advantage of by local drug dealers who took control of him home.
After joining Magic Life, the team initials findings found that he was unable to maintain eye contact, had poor focus and limited interest in any most topics. The team having experience in similar cases knew that one area of concern would be the poor handling of his finances which presented earlier on with Richard spending all of his money as quickly as it came in, this left him unable to feed himself and so the staff used all their resources and knowledge of local food banks and soup kitchens to get him through the month.
The team knew that the key to success in helping him break his destructive circle would be to help him with control his benefits payments. The team needed an opportunity to put a plan in place.
This opportunity presented itself by Richard himself unknowingly. He had expressed a passion for playing the guitar and his love for music after conversations with a staff member who also enjoyed music. Seizing the opportunity, an agreement was struck between Richard and the Team to create a saving plan. This would see Richard handing his monthly benefit payment over to Staff. In return, they calculated a daily amount of money required and the rest would be saved to buy a guitar.
It was not a very expensive instrument so Richard could clearly see a reward on the horizon, and It did not take long before the guitar was his.
According to Richard, he had not experienced many positive interactions in his life. We are happy our relationship with Richard started this way. This positive interaction affected him greatly and he wished to continue to keep his money in our safe even after he bought the guitar. He now sees the benefit of controlling his finances although he needs our help to do so. This was a major achievement by Richard himself. Recognising he has a problem in this area is a building block for the future. He now interacts daily with staff and enjoys the fruits of his labour every day.