Gill Price-Collinson, a Floating Support & Resettlement Worker, has been at the Whitechapel Centre for 20 years, having previously worked in a variety of hostels.
She explains, “At school I wanted to be a teacher but due to very few qualifications this wasn’t possible. But, in a turn of fate, I’m teaching people how to resettle in homes. I love the variety of work, meeting people who have come from all over the place.
“I recently worked for nearly two years with a client who lost his job during the pandemic. He had always worked, from a young age, so when he lost his job, his whole world crashed around him. His mental health declined very quickly. He had a massive mistrust of authority but at the same time needed various assessments and mobility aids. The first year was spent attending a lot of medical appointments and I spoke on his behalf much of the time as he just couldn’t cope. He would be taken the wrong way, seen as aggressive when it was just that he was so stressed. There was a lot moral /emotional support and advocacy. Now he in his own accommodation, his garden looks lovely and he is as settled as he can be with his mental health.
“I have learnt so much from working with this client and taken away a lot of positive ways of working.”
Gill
