#51 - Linda Murphy - Homelessness is a health issue

In this episode, we meet Linda Murphy, Health and Social Services Coordinator at the Calder Centre, part of the Auckland City Mission. Linda has been a nurse, a librarian, an Anglican minister, and a Human Rights Commission employee. In 2003 she slipped on a wet pavement on Wesley Street and was picked up by a dishevelled one-eyed man while suited pedestrians walked by. That moment cost her nothing and changed the direction of the rest of her life. For more than twenty years she has been accompanying vulnerable people through illness, crisis, and death at the Calder Centre — and since 1997 she has kept a personal record of every death among people connected to the Mission. The average age of death is 55 for men and 54 for women. A death every fortnight. In this episode, Linda talks about what it actually takes to accompany someone through the health system when they are frightened, traumatised, and possibly cognitively affected. She talks about the Corrections pipeline, the people who are housed but still cannot sleep indoors because the walls themselves are frightening, and why she does not think there is a single patient at the Calder Centre who does not suffer from PTSD. And she talks about what would actually help. We'd like to thank Linda for taking the time to speak with us for this episode.And don't forget to subscribe to the CHA Hub Podcast — wherever you get your podcasts from.The CHA Hub Podcast is sponsored by our Founding Partner, Westpac New Zealand.