Case Study Of A Homeless Client

I previously worked with a homeless African American male, approximately 48 years of age, diagnosed as a paranoid Schizophrenic with co-occurring substance abuse (crack cocaine and K-2) disorder. This client would often make suicidal statements accompanied by ideations when off his medication. On at least 3 occasions I contacted a clinical supervisor to complete an emergency petition to hospitalize this client.

On several other occasions this client became very aggressive and emotionally unstable; especially whenever he was off his medication for an extended periods of time.

The difficulty in assisting this particular client was that he disappeared for days smoking crack and K-2. The Client would always resurface and have a period of sobriety; only to repeat the cycle again. His mood swings were considered severe raging from normal to delusional.
In the end with the absence of a suitable mental health facility that would accept this client and his own decision to continue to engage in drug use ultimately ended in his death from Cardiomyopathy and acute Pneumonia on the streets of Silver Spring Maryland.
I have gone over this case on several occasion to revisit what more could have been done for this client, but in terms of connecting the client to services to help him with his impairment; there were limited resources for extremely difficulty to handle