Omar's Story

Omar arrived in the UK in the middle of last year and turned 17 in December, 2012. Omar is from Syria. He feels very homesick and misses his family terribly. He doesn’t know their whereabouts or whether they are still alive.

Omar is suffering from acute anxiety which, as with so many of the people we support, is accompanied by physical manifestations of anxiety. In Omar’s case severe palpitations and sweating. As with so many other people in his situation (including Hassan in the above case study), Omar has regular nightmares and so avoids sleeping as much as he can, which adds to his low mood.

All these problems – again depressingly familiar to us at Solace – are exacerbated by sub-standard housing. He has a leaking roof, mice, mould, insects that bite him and have infested his clothes. He has no vacuum cleaner or cleaning products.

At Solace we try and help him sort these problems out by liaising with the housing provider, putting pressure on any agency that is providing a sub-standard service.

Working on Omar’s behalf, of course, builds trust and with trust comes the possibility of opening up and helping him address his mental health problems.