What does life look like living with stage four liver cirrhosis without medication coverage, income, safe and secure housing, or your own tangible identity card? It’s a situation one of our CUPS Clients, Lina, knows far too well. A situation that once restricted her access to treatment and the ability to care for her kids. Fast forward to now, she has gone on an encouraging journey towards stability with the help of CUPS’ Health Teams.
Struggles in Finding Resources
Lina is one of 6,000 clients that CUPS supports each year. Before Lina was connected with the C2C team at CUPS, she was staying in a shelter and struggling to access health care and find a place to call home. After being admitted to the hospital for liver cirrhosis, she was referred to our C2C team, who were able to support her to discharge to a detox facility so she could begin her recovery journey.
From there, our CUPS Health Teams were able to begin to set Lina up with the resources and support she needed to move towards stability. The C2C Health Navigator worked to connect Lina with primary care and counselling at CUPS, along with support from the CUPS Liver Clinic and OAT Clinics. A C2C Nurse Navigator provided her with health education on how to manage her diabetes. And C2C helped Lina get an ID so she would be able to qualify and apply for income supports and access housing.
Through her attendance in an addiction treatment program, Lina was able to build some skills that would enable her to secure independent housing. And from there, our C2C team supported her with furniture, and food bank and clothing referrals to set her up for success. Once she was housed, sober, and connecting to her health team regularly, Lina had a goal of re-unifying with her children in foster care.
Reuniting with Family
C2C referred Lina to the Family and Child Development Centre (FCDC) at CUPS to support this goal. Now that Lina’s immediate health and social needs were stabilized, she transitioned to working with the Graduation Navigator for ongoing support. Lina began attending parenting groups at CUPS and started having visits with her children. Eventually, with the ongoing support of CUPS’ FCDC and health teams, Lina graduated from the C2C program.
Her long-term goals now include applying for her Indigenous Status, attending school and working with her FCDC worker on finding family housing so that she can have her children move-in with her. Because of the amazing work of the CUPS Health Teams, Lina is able to move forward towards a life of health, security, and happiness.