Michelle Hansen, LPN with Turning Point (left), Samantha Shortneck and her son. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

getting well

Turning Point women’s program turning lives around

Sep 2, 2019 | 9:00 AM

For seven years, 28-year-old Red Deerian Samantha Shortneck was homeless and battling addictions to meth and alcohol.

That struggle began to get easier in 2015 when Turning Point launched a dedicated women’s program designed to provide support around pregnancy, mental health, addictions, housing, and family and legal matters.

Shortneck had already been visiting Turning Point on a regular basis, but the program’s inception was a game-changer for her.

“Sometimes people don’t want to go to places because they’re scared of being judged. I know for a fact the workers in the women’s program will never judge anybody. When you know someone is going to be judging you, it makes you feel ashamed and not want to reach out,” she explains.

“It took me a while to open up, but once I did, I could tell them anything and was able to walk away feeling really good about myself.”

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Needless to say, Shortneck’s life has done a 180, and she wants others who are in a position like she was to know there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

“I have been housed for the three years, I’ve been sober for a long period of time, and I have full custody of my baby,” she says. “I also sit on the board of the Native Friendship Centre, and the Red Deer Aboriginal Dance Troupe. I’m fully connected with my culture and the community, I know the difference between an unhealthy and healthy relationship, and I’m still connected with my other two kids.”

Michelle Hansen, an LPN with the women’s program, says Shortneck is completely accurate in talking about judgement from others.

“A lot of them are very untrusting of healthcare professionals for a variety of reasons and I see why when I’m there with them. They do get treated very differently,” she says.

“A good 75 per cent of healthcare professionals we deal with treat them very negatively, so I’m there to help them stand up for themselves and say ‘just because I might use substances doesn’t mean I don’t deserve medical care.”

The program currently has about 145 active files, meaning a client has utilized it in the last year. Around 40 women currently take advantage of the women’s program three or more times a week.

“Mostly we deal with women who are marginally housed, meaning they rent and maybe they are barely able to afford that rent, but from all walks of life,” adds Hansen. “We do have some ladies accessing our services that are housed with a mortgage and a husband; that’s not as common of course, but women do come to us in a crisis state, whether they’ve been a victim of domestic violence or they’ve been evicted from their apartment.”

Shortneck, who still drops by the program at Turning Point once or twice weekly, shared a message for those with misconceptions about all the organization does.

“Come down here and talk to the workers, get to know what they do and find out about their resources,” she says. “Don’t criticize people if you haven’t been in their shoes.”