Summary: Homeless Population Scenarios

1. In your text on pages 206-207, the author discusses his research on the homeless population. He refers to the many routes one can take to become homeless. Choose two populations from his list that you might work with in your career as a human services professional. Describe two possible interventions or tasks that you might be involved with in working with each population. What are some of the general skills a human services professional might need to work with these population?

The homeless are a vulnerable population. They are defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as “an individual who lacks housing (without regard to whether the individual is a member of a family), including an individual whose primary residence during the night is a supervised public or private facility (e.g., shelters) that provides temporary living accommodations, and an individual who is a resident in transitional housing.” (The National Health Care for the Homeless Council, 2016). They are a social group throughout the US who are susceptible to all of the life’s cruelties. They are much more at risk for adverse illnesses due to their lack of available resources and medical help. Many have predetermined illnesses which need daily treatment but cannot acquire the medication needed. The homeless population lacks the funding for life’s necessities, thus the luxury of insurance and medicine is a dream.

In the United States the homeless population continues to grow rapidly. Homelessness has been a public health issue for many decades. Often times these individuals feel as though society has turned a blind eye to them. This at risk population is seen by society as lazy or chose to live a life on the streets, but if one would examine this population closely would see that there is more to this at risk population than what society has labeled them as. The forces, which affect homelessness, are multifaceted. Social forces such as family breakdown, addictions, and mental illnesses are in combined with structural forces such as lack of low-cost housing, insufficient health services, and poor economic conditions. Many would

The clinical issues affecting the homeless individual can range from mental illness to health issues. Several clinical issues affect the homeless population because of lack of health insurance and clinical resources. “The clinical issues affecting homeless people are dental, vision, foot diseases, post-traumatic arthritis, HIV, TB, STD’s respiratory infections, diabetes, hypertension, and nutritional problems are all major clinical issues” (Zevin, 2013). Quite a few people are homeless and suffer from various clinical issues because they have no insurance, housing, support from family/friends, or program resources. It seems when populations such homelessness is so huge some are left behind with no help. Various social service organizations exist that cater to the homeless population, but so many individuals and families are not helped because of mis-direction. Health care is an important factor to many, especially those who do not have access to a health care facility. Social services resources are available as well as the human service

Seeing homelessness develop is a process that the older generation can say they have been apart of. The young generation, on the other hand, cannot say they have seen the development of homelessness. People who are thirty years old or younger have grown up believing that homelessness was always part of the landscape. The younger generation has come to believe that there have always been homeless people sitting on park benches. When an individual is asked what they see most in a large city like Chicago or New York, ‘homeless people’ is a common response. According to the United States Census Bureau, 320.8 million individuals currently live in the United States of America. Imagine the proportion of individuals that do not own a car or even a house to live in. The National Law Center on Homelessness and poverty did studied to conclude that in America more than 3.5 million people experience homelessness each year. Those concerned with the issue of homelessness are curious as to what events had to have happened that lead to the individuals living on the streets. The reasons are different for each and every person. Some of the more major issues that contribute to this are lack of affordable housing, declining welfare assistance, and most importantly, mental illness. Resolving the issue of homelessness is very possible with new ways of housing and treatment for the mentally ill. The relation between the homeless and the mental illness has risen, and the United States as a whole

One of the biggest leading social issues around the world is homelessness. In the United States alone, there are more than half a million people experiencing homelessness. There are different factors that led a person to homelessness, economic, social, political issues, and natural disasters. But in the United States, homelessness is often caused by system failure, and people and with related issues. A brief history of homelessness, the issues documented during the early colonial period, back then it was viewed as a character flaw in the person and not outside causes. The Great Depression hits the United States hard and millions lost their jobs result in homelessness. Comes swooping in with the New Deal policy from presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt helps save the economy by providing jobs and helps reduce homeless population (Homelessness). In the early 80’s the economy was losing jobs again due to the decline of manufacturing, causes a high-rise in homelessness. That led to many cutbacks in affordable housing, medical care that makes many mentally ill patients unable to afford housing. With that many Individuals with disabilities or mental health issues that can’t afford proper health can be in danger of homelessness. But for those who are already living on the streets don’t have access to nutrient, personal hygiene, and other serious health conditions. There is some organization across the United States that provides health care service for

The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age (WHO, 2016). This current event relates to the social determinants of health because homelessness has a huge impact on someone’s overall health and quality of life. People who experience homelessness do not have the resources to maintain their health. This can lead to stress, depression, substance abuse, and a number of problems. They are exposed to communicable diseases, malnutrition and many other health issues. Over 500,000 Americans are homeless every night (Kertesz, 2016). This is why we have Health Care for the Homeless programs. The majority of federally funded organizations for the homeless are operated properly. But, there are some

Over the years Los Angeles has had the highest number of homeless people; this situation has been highly overlooked by media and political attention. Cities in many parts of the world may be known as centers for poverty whether if it 's a developed or developing country. No city, state, or country is prone to homelessness. Los Angeles in particular is an entry point for many immigrants who come to look for jobs. The intentions are not to cause there to be a vulnerability to poverty but to try to make a living some how. “Skid Row homeless population originates in South LA – where services and shelters lack resource adequacy and unemployment rates are high among adult men – and policy discussions rarely focus on this trend” (Howard, 4). Los Angeles Skid Row, is known to have the heaviest homeless population compared to other cities. Los Angeles does provide some homeless services like shelter and low-cost housing options for the poor but one of the issues that many homeless people come across is the lack of healthcare. Everyone can suffer from physical and mental health issues but there is a bigger impact on the homeless people in the Los Angeles county because they are not obtaining the proper help mentally, physically, and socially. Many people lose their lives or spread many disease amongst the community. The city of Los Angeles should provide healthcare for the homeless because this issue affects the homeless and everyone else around. More disease are passed around, more

In 1990 men between the ages of 28-36 made up more than 25% of the population of male adults in homeless shelters (New York Times). Interestingly, a decade later the age group jumped a decade to ages 37-45, reflecting that arguably the same group of individuals or those with similar circumstances, such as those born in the baby boomers era, are being affected by the homeless epidemic in California. In no way is homelessness only affecting the elderly community. Homelessness and the hardships that insufficient housing causes for people across the nation are widespread. It affects men, women, and children of all ethnicities as well as the geriatric population. In 2013 more than 610,000 persons were homeless, many of them families (American Family Physician). The question is not whether homelessness on a grand scale is truly an issue for American social services agencies and governments, but how health care professionals can be invaluable assets to change when it comes to waging a war on homelessness in the geriatric population specifically, and providing their neighbors with the best standard of living, at all stages of

Can you imagine if you had no house and had to sleep on the street in the United States? You are sick and need to see the doctor. What do you do? People who have no house are called homeless people. When they don’t feel well and need to see a physician, they do not know where they can go and ask for help. Homeless people have the barriers of access to health care in the US. Therefore, the government should ensure that homeless people gain information about health care services and can access those services. To understand the extent of the problem, we first need to understand what the definition of homeless people and health care are, and what are the connection between them. Then we can discuss what the barriers of homeless people accessing

It often very difficult to address every situation in addressing homeless people barriers in accessing healthcare. However, there are things that can be in placed to address such issues.

Throughout history there has always been a portion of society living in disadvantaged conditions. With the current high cost of living, global issues, unemployment rate on the rise, and low wages, many Americans are finding themselves homeless. One would think that in this advanced century, there would not be individuals living without the basic necessities such as food, water, and shelter. Unfortunately, there are millions of people with nowhere to sleep. Besides the many problems homeless people face daily, one of the leading problems is health care. Being homeless with limited access to health care or shelter in conjunction with mental illness or exposure to harmful diseases can lead to poor health, or

The homeless population has been rising in the United States. Homeless individuals are considered to be a part of the vulnerable population. A vulnerable population is described as a group of people with limited resources and numerous health risks know as health disparities who are more likely to develop problems more so than others. Examples of risks are chronic illness, addiction, and altered mental capacity. These risks lead to the need for healthcare. The two studies the article, “Emergency care for homeless patients: A window into the health needs of vulnerable populations” discusses how access to care, multiple emergency room visits, and costs can affect the homeless population (Bharel, 2016).

The goal to improve access to health care services is important in the homeless population. The homeless often lack the ability to pay for health services. Many homeless remain uninsured or underinsured (Parker, 2013). Without insurance, the homeless of the United States have little to no access to preventative services (Parker, 2013). Instead, they rely on emergency departments for treatment (Doran, 2013). This occurs for many reasons. First, it is one of the only places

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the policy and actions that can be taken to end the homelessness issue. Homeless is a serious multi-faceted issue that requires the involvement of many agencies, policymakers, governments and faith-organizations. Having no home is a miserable experience, causing health problems, exacerbating existing health problems, and complicating treatment.  It is so difficult to find a safe place to stay, obtain enough food, keep clean, and stay out of the way of the police and even sleeping on the streets, on people’s sofa and in doorways, Baltimore’s homeless population has been increased in recent years. There are several answers to this issue, and its depend on the individual’s matters. One of the solutions to end homelessness in Baltimore city is housing, trying to re-housing the homeless people in a safe environment. Second, ending poverty, next another solution to homelessness is guaranteeing that everybody has the health and confirmatory services that they need to stay housed. For individuals who are mentally sick or physically disabled. It is often the case that overburdened family members cannot or do not wish to care for them. This reduces their options to abandoned buildings or