You should go to the pharmacy where you get your meds and have them print off a list for you. If you aren’t comfortable going there and having to tell them your situation in person, then give them a call and see what they can do for you.
That list will give you the correct names and dosages, so you can get them elsewhere if necessary. It will also show that you have legitimately been prescribed those meds before… it might save you some steps later. Most likely the pharmacy will not let you get refills there (since you probably aren’t due for them yet). They generally don’t give people too many psych meds at one time, so they aren’t being abused or sold. Insurance companies also keep a pretty tight reign on them as well, so they aren’t spending any more than they have to. ::roll-eyes::
I don’t think going to your regular doctor would get you very far. You might end up paying for a visit in vain. Money that could be spent better elsewhere. I’m not sure if you have your insurance card with you ? I assume you would have to pay full price for the visit since the year has started over. Same with the scripts if they did allow you to get them at the pharmacy. It might be worth a phone call… but I think there should be cheaper alternatives.
Your social worker should be able to hook you up with some agency to get your meds from, for free or cheap (and hopefully other things you need). It looks like there are a lot of programs in the Denver area. You won’t qualify for some because you have insurance and medicaid. They should be able to wade through all the different agencies and point you in the right direction. There should be some type of free clinic - the social worker should know the best ones for your situation. They can also help you find out what medicaid benefits you have and how to get access to them.
I hope some of this is helpful. I have had to deal with a shitload of red tape, getting meds for myself. I’ve utilized 3 different agencies at once, because some of them would not deal with psych meds (or the specific one I needed). Jumping through all the hoops gets a little old - but usually worth it in the end. It can be your new “hobby” :0) I am in a different state, but I wouldn’t think the hierarchy would be much different for you there. It actually looks like there are a lot of excellent places that can help you in the Denver area.
Please get your meds… you need to have your mind as clear as possible to deal with everything else that is on your plate right now. I wish you the best of luck !
Posting to say I read this, and I wish you every success. Your post was well written, easy to read and understand - you sound a lot less nutty than a hell of a lot of people on this board, heheheh!
please get your meds. you say you have refills, call the pharmacy and request them. if you can’t remember the names, tell them what it’s for (“i take that one for sleep, that one for depression…”) they can figure it out. or just tell them to refill all the meds they have on file for you, such requests are common. this is the easiest of your problems to solve, don’t go without your meds.
So, I’m trying a massive multi-quote reply to cut down on the dreaded double posts.
First of all, thank you all so very much for words of support. I can’t believe I’m saying that; that’s the kind of glurge I usually despise, but right now it feels genuine and I just can’t express how much it means for even just random anonymous internet people to know and care where I am and what I’m doing. I appreciate you all so very much.
Last night I slept in a big hospital’s parking lot where it was just dark enough to sleep but there was enough openness and night-time activity for it to feel safe. Unfortunately it was way too cold to sleep without leaving the engine running all night for the heater, but my car sips gas when idling and I’m sure I used less than ten dollars of gas doing that. Still, I need a better plan for the nights.
Breakfast was water and cliff bars that happened to be in the car when I left. I eat a lot of cliff bars. Right now I’m at a public library using their wifi. Finding clothes is a very high priority for today; I desperately need a shower, and I’m very wary of showing up at my gym looking too disheveled or without actual gym clothes.
This looks like it is going to be an invaluable resource, if I can figure out how to navigate it. Thank you so much for the link!
And thank you thank you thank you for reading my long post!
That’s funny, and I like that idea generally. The difficulty for me is in feeling like I’m being rude when they call and I don’t pick up- I feel like they’ve ‘caught’ me and I have to answer. Plus, the text messages sometimes just display right on the screen. I’m struggling to think of some way to let them know that I’m not taking calls from them that doesn’t involve talking to them and being manipulated into saying something rude; at least when the phone is off incoming calls should go straight to voicemail. At any rate, I feel my Aunt in particular is very likely to act as if I must receive any messages she sends, in the “If you don’t call me back in the next hour I’m going to take that as you giving me permission to do X.” fashion. She is astonishingly devious about stuff like that. I’m really just trying not to feed the troll; whatever she does is her choice, and I’m not going to let her extract another warped justification for her actions from me. As of this morning I’m seriously considering going out and getting a new phone; my phone used to be on my own account, paid for by me, but my Aunt & Uncle convinced me to join their family account to save money, and now of course the phone company won’t even tell me the status of the account because I’m not the account holder. I’d lose my phone number, but the more I think about it, the more that seems like a bonus and not a negative.
And thank you thank you thank you for reading all my long crap!
This seems like another very useful idea, at least for protecting my own sanity. Really, it’s finding some way to indicate to incoming family calls that I’m really really not taking them that’s the problem. I looked into blocking some of their phone numbers, but T-mobile was at least willing to tell me that that feature wasn’t built into my particular phone, they don’t offer it as a basic account feature, and the account would have to be modified in order to enable it.
And thank you thank you thank you for reading my crap long ramblings seriously I mean it!
And you too! Thank you thank you thank you for reading my stupidly long rambling thing about my crap! And yes, I will definitely keep checking in, you guys are being great!
The mail forwarding thing actually sounds like a very good and important idea. I will keep that in mind. Actually getting a PO Box seems a little drastic, but then I walked out of the house without any extra clothes. I will look into it.
Thank you thank you thank you for reading all the letters and words and sentences that I typed!
Thank you for the long reply! But, um… I’m not in Denver. I’m not sure how that idea got planted? I am in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metropolitan area. The idea about calling the pharmacist and asking for the medication names sounds like a very good suggestion. My medication is actually primarily to control a gastrointestinal condition, but going off it suddenly is still really bad. I am going to start calling the numbers I have for my medicaid in an attempt to sort out what it can do for me.
Thank you thank you thank you for reading all the many things that made up the post that started this thread that I made!
Thank you thank you thank you for taking the time to read that which I wrote and also for complimenting how I wrote it!
I already thanked you for reading my thing, but thank you also for concurring that I am not crazy. Which is not to claim that I am not crazy- I am definitely crazy- but it is still quite nice to hear! I will pretend that it is true.
I will make fixing this a priority. You guys all seem to feel it deserves more concern than I’ve given it, so I’m going to push hard to figure something out.
Thank you thank you thank you for reading my writing and making me struggle to come up with new variations on saying thank you!
Hopefully there are not too many mistakes in this mega-reply. I’ve got to go try to actually work on things now but I will check in again before going to sleep.
Just call your SSI caseworker or whoever you have the contact info for and tell them you don’t know how to use your Medicaid benefits. They will definitely be able to help you with that. There will also be a way to find a list of doctors who accept it. I don’t know what that way is in your state but there will be something.
And you don’t need an address to get food stamps! They have procedures for people without a mailing address. But there are probably also charities that will offer you a free place to pick up your mail. I know there’s one here that offers that plus laundry facilities, showers, toiletries, etc, all for free (and it’s not a shelter, it’s just for people to drop in during the day to do whatever they need to do). Luckily you have a computer and know how to use it, so you should do some research (that’s how I found those resources when I was looking to do some volunteer work…just googling).
Make good use of your SSI caseworker. Those folks are always busy, so you will need to take the initiative–be ready with your questions and concerns when you call, and take notes on the answers so you don’t have to call back with the same questions. Otherwise, I think you have gotten some excellent advice here, and you seem willing to work to help yourself.
Take good care and keep us informed, please. I’ll be thinking of you.
Check with the local food banks, while you look into getting food stamps. Just go over to Health and Human Resources, get in line, and tell them your situation has changed. You need Medicaid, you need SNAP, you need help finding a boarding house or some sort of low cost living arrangements. Make sure they understand you are NOT a student.
A shopping mall might be a good spot to hang out temporarily, during the daytime. Most have free wifi and nobody’s going to look too hard at people killing time, milling around. There’s public RRs, and probably a spot to unobtrusively plug your phone in to keep the battery topped off. You could apply for work at each and every business in the place, then move along to the next shopping mall in a day or two, until you hit paydirt and score a job, or an assortment of part time jobs.
In some ways it sounds like you are taking more control of your life now, which would be a good thing. If that’s the case then don’t focus on the immediate results. Becoming active instead of passive may be just what you need for the long term. So hang in there, don’t brood, keep acting to improve your life.
On the subject of where to park the car for sleeping–when I was about 21, I lived out of my car for a month or two, just seeing the country. I always felt safest parked in highway rest-stops. For every creep who might want to bother me, there were ten truckers within screaming distance who would kick his ass. Many places like that also have showers and laundry services.
There is the Day Resource Center in Ft. Worth which apparently provides internet access, mail, showers, laundry facilities, etc. for the homeless. That can help with some of your sanitary needs.
Yes, for people who have current housing, there is a multi-year waiting list for subsidized housing. But you are now in a NEW category: Homeless. That makes you eligible for more emergency services than someone who is stable but looking to move into a better situation.
It sounds like you are lucky to have a case worker who is interested and invested in you. If you have a good caseworker, that person can help you develop a workable plan, prioritize your needs, and make calls on your behalf.
You appear to be pretty functional at this point, and the service delivery system is designed to keep you functional. Stable housing, regular nutritious meals, taking medications as prescribed all help keep you functional at the least cost to the state. Services are available and you need to learn about them. Use your Medicaid insurance, and other state benefits. That’s why they are there for you.
I don’t know if “Metro Social Services” and “Travelers Aid” are the actual names of the service agencies in the DFW area, but if you call information and describe your needs, they will give you the actual names and contact numbers of the agencies that provide those services.
Oh, and some of the subsidized housing options are, like you said, not a place most people would want to live. However, I’ve been in some that are quite clean and nice, and would be a decent place to live. Your case manager can help you find a place that might be acceptable for you.
Moving into a group home temporarily might also be an option, with the long term plan of moving out into private housing as your situation improves. One of the problems of being homeless is that you have to worry about immediate concerns (where will I sleep tonight?) and don’t look six months or a year down the road to where you want to end up. Give yourself a little time to look at long range goals, and develop a plan to get there.
The shopping mall idea is a very good one, not only because of the possibility of scoring at least a part-time job, but also because, while you won’t be able to take a full shower, you can at least use the sinks to wash your hands and face and, well – don’t be offended! – you can take a whore’s bath too. (Wetting paper towels and using them to wipe down your stinkiest parts.)
Also, a quick reminder: just because someone calls your phone, that doesn’t mean you have to pick up. You can even just text them back (“Hey, I got your voice mssg”) if you want to acknowledge the call without actually speaking with them.
Oh, and if you want to be connected directly to someone’s cell phone voice mail without ever talking to the person, use SlyDial. In return for listening to a short advertisement, the service will connect you to voice mail without allowing the person’s phone to ever ring.
From their website:
I’ve used it before - it does work.
Lastly … I’m in the Dallas area myself. I’m not in much of a position to help you directly, I don’t think, but please send me a PM if you need more local info. I’ll be checking this thread, and thinking of you. We do care, I promise. We care.
Strain, it is incredibly brave of you to take the steps you have! Stay positive and follow the advice upthread! It looks to me to be incredibly useful and sage overall. I can’t really suggest much over and above what you have read already but I do know that truck stops usually have shower and laundry facilities that are relatively inexpensive if you don’t want to exercise you gym option. Also, I would recommend you find Cabala’s style outfitters and get a survival blanket (foil type)and maybe a few regular ones as well if you can; Useful for all kinds of things.
Okay, wow, I had a pretty good day today. Some ups and some downs, but overall a lot better than I was hoping for.
My primary goal today was to complete my scheduled phone interview with my Ticket-To-Work caseworker at 5 pm. Having time before then, and desperately wanting to get clean, I did an internet search for “free clothing grapevine tx” (Yeah, let’s just put that out there, I’m in the Grapevine area. Doesn’t narrow it down all that much really.) and got a hit for a local organization, Grapevine Relief And Community Exchange. (Yes, that spells G.R.A.C.E.) I was just hoping for a place that had a shirts and pants bin or something, so I called and very awkwardly asked if I could get free clothes from them. The lady on the phone told me to come in; they were very close, so I did immediately. Just about everyone there was very nice. I don’t mean ordinary, inoffensive niceness; I mean people who exude a palpable air of reassurance. I was stuck in a waiting room for over an hour, but Toy Story was playing on a television so it honestly was a welcome distraction. Long story short, I not only left there with two nice shirts, two nice pairs of jeans (Actually in my size!), a few pairs of underwear and socks, spare shoes, a towel and a blanket- I really should have taken more shirts, they said I could, but they were being so nice and I felt taking more would be greedy- but they sent me to their food pantry, despite me not even asking for anything but clothing, and the two extremely nice ladies there sent me away with two large shopping bags of food suitable for living out of a car, and most importantly, toiletries. I’ve been homeless before, and my mom has been dependent on charity since I was in middle school: I have seen the insides of a few food pantries. And let me tell you, this place was nice. When I have an address again, they are getting a written thank you letter. Seriously.
The interview took two hours and seemed to go well, but the bad news is that my caseworker says that he won’t have the paperwork completed to start sending me leads until next week. I wish now that I’d thought of a way to politely ask what the paperwork consisted of, but he sounded very competent so I’m sure it’s something unavoidable. He encouraged me to look for other work or resources in the intervening week; one of his points was that the Ticket-to-Work program was designed for long-term results and he expects to talk to me at least once a month for the next three to five years. So, long-term relationship, can’t rush things. There some other information but I think I’m too tired now to try and condense it into text.
But after that the really great thing happened and I managed to get my change of clothes and myself to the gym before they closed and took a shower! It feels so good to be clean. I’m in Tom Thumb using their wifi now, but I think I underestimated how exhausted I was when I sat down to write this, because I’ve been staring at the computer blankly for two hours and I think I have to call it quits and go try to sleep. I’m really sorry; I will try to do proper replies tomorrow. Goodnight guys, and thank you so much for all the support.
Well, by my reckoning you’ve gone to bed at the time the wee hours were reaching kindergarten, which means you sat down to write sometime after midnight. Sleep well
