Rosa Lee’s typical daily activities include waking up, although wanting to stay in bed, she can’t. Rosa Lee describes having stomach pains that awaken her early every morning, as they do many heroin addicts. The cramps begin at 6:30am and linger until she can get to the city drug-treatment clinic for her fifty-five milligram dose of methadone. She describes not having an issue with waking up early because she enjoys utilizing the extra time to make herself look nice. Due to Rosa Lee being a safety net for many of her children most of her children are laying around the home when she awakes. After the methadone clinic, Rosa Lee has breakfast at the local McDonald’s, she can’t stand to eat anything until she has her methadone. …show more content…
She also received three hundred and fifty dollars welfare stipend each month. Rosa Lee never has a clear grasp of where she stands with her bills she does not have the basic skills to live in a conventional bill- paying world. Those of her children living with her spend their money as well as Rosa Lee’s before she able to pay most of the bills (Dash, 1993).
Familial Relationships of: Most of Rosa Lee’s children followed in her footprints. Six of her children followed her into a life of teenage parent hood, drugs, and crime (Dash, 1993).
Legal History of: Rosa Lee has an extensive criminal record. Since 1951, when she was first arrested for shoplifting, she served her first prison term for theft in 1966. Since then, she has gone to prison twelve times, serving a total of five years for theft or drug conviction (Dash, 1993).
Health History of: since 1988 Rosa Lee has been hospitalized 15 times. She has a history of seizures and memory loss. She is HIV positive; she isn’t certain how she got the virus but has shared needles with other addicts while injecting heroin, including sharing needles with four of her children (Dash,