At the end of November, in consultation with the family, Rommel’s stay at Ruach’s community home came to an end, as it was concluded that Rommel needs more specialized care than we could offer him.
In May, Rommel came to live with us as the 7th core member after a speeded-up selection process. It had never been our plan to have a 7th resident, but there had been special circumstances which we did not want to ignore. In February I had got to know Rommel in his home context in Bluefields, a 5 hour bus journey from Juigalpa. I’d seen with my own eyes that his living circumstances were far from ideal. So he came to stay with us for two days in April, the first of three visits of increasing duration to get to know him better. But in May, during the second visit, an emergency request from the family resulted in an early admission, because of the ill-health of his aunt (in her early 80s) and travel restrictions caused by the corona virus.
Before he came to us we were aware that Rommel could show moments of difficult behaviour which would be difficult for our relatively inexperienced employees to cope with, for whom setting boundaries and radiating authority at the right times could be a serious challenge. As we were anticipating this, we had discussed and agreed with Rommel’s aunt that she would be available to provide support by telephone when needed. During the first weeks we regularly called her to talk about how we could best respond to Rommel in certain situations.
How did Rommel fare?
Rommel made some progress with us in the early days. In his home context he did not move around much and was lethargic. With us he had to go up and down the stairs and needed to walk to get to his room. He regularly participated in activities such as drawing, doing a simple puzzle, or colouring. Little by little he also learned to accept rules and boundaries, something he had not been used to.
But he did show difficult behaviour at times which we were not used to. He could be verbally aggressive, and sometimes he was aggressive towards others. He also suffered from obsessive compulsive thoughts resulting in a crying noise that he could sustain for hours. Of course there were reasons. But the point was that he could not accept that things were going the way they were, and he stayed locked in his fixations, and unfortunately, he was then inaccessible to us. We therefore asked a psychiatrist for a professional assessment of Rommel’s functioning and condition. Her assessment reinforced the picture of Rommel’s psychological problems being beyond our capabilities.
Decision
Lacking the confidence as to how to deal with Rommel, and knowing that our staff were not equipped to deal a psychiatric episode, we were aware that one day the situation could get out of hand. We kept the Ruach Board well informed, and continued discussing Rommel’s behaviour and our difficulties in handling it properly in weekly phone calls with the aunt. Fortunately, the aunt really understood our dilemma. We jointly took the decision a the difficult decision for Rommel to leave our community.
Rommel’s departure
Rommel’s family came to collect him at the end of November. In Nicaragua there are almost no alternatives for people in Rommel’s situation, so for the time being Rommel went back to living with his aunt until the family finds someone who can give him the care he needs. Not ideal. We gave Rommel a dignified farewell, but with lots of pain in all our hearts. We will continue to help Rommel’s family to search for a good alternative solution for him. Not easy in a country like Nicaragua. So let’s pray this will happen sooner rather than later.
