Jordan’s Story

Jordon (pseudonym) is a dedicated father of three sons and a whānau member at Āwhina Whānau Services.

My son was suicidal, he was reluctant to talk about things, probably because the issues ran deep for him. Sometimes my son would flip over something little. He would go into the garage and throw things around, yelling and cursing. Triggers happened at work and at home and he’d get into trouble: alcohol, drunk driving, getting caught by the cops which almost landed him in jail for five years, petty crime like stealing from malls.

My experiences of other services is that they don’t really listen, they don’t seem to understand and that doesn’t really work for me.

It’s completely different when I came to AWS. I’ve told other services the truth but they seemed to do nothing about it. I put it all on the line when I went to AWS; the results have been amazing. I was observing the AWS counsellors and their answers, the way they worked with me and my son and if they didn’t hit the mark, I was gone. But they actually totally understood the situation.

Two weeks ago, I went through a bad patch and drove up to Te Mata Peak and considered driving off. And then a picture of the AWS counsellor came to my mind, and I felt him saying “Be strong bro, we are going to help you get through, we are going to take care of you; you are going to be alright.” And I decided that when I see them on Tuesday for counselling I was going to tell them the whole truth and nothing but the truth – I would not hold back, I’d tell them that I’d had enough; that I’d hit rock bottom and that it was D-Day for all of us. They realised that the issues were really bad, that they needed to spend more time with us to help us get though the crisis. They wanted me to know that they were there for me, that they were there for us as a family. I was amazed. My boys were amazed. I felt loved, cared for, understood. It was a crux moment and they picked that up. They were committed to help, they have a real heart to help people. We didn’t need someone who had the right words, we needed someone who really cared. I totally know that they have got our backs, they are there for us, they will go over and above to make sure that they help us and get us through.

I’m not looking too far ahead at the moment. I’m just looking at getting though, we’ll see how we go. I’m trying to get that connection with my boys back again; that they can trust me, that we are ok.

We all have to see the truth because that is what will set us free. Get help now. This is what we are focused on doing, we are all happy with that.