Vulnerable populations are those with a greater risk of developing health conditions. These groups may have difficulty accessing healthcare because of sociocultural status, limited economic resources, geographic, or characteristics such as age, gender (****). This separation puts members of these groups at risk for not obtaining necessary medical care and thus creates a possible threat to their health. Vulnerable populations include some group like chronically ill, people with HIV/AIDS, mentally ill and disabilities, substance abusers and homeless groups population. For example, disadvantaged and poor working individuals who are unable to obtain health care due to their immigrant status also ethnic minority groups, typically discriminated against even though they have successful careers, higher education and …show more content…
Increase the number of the free clinics that will provide some health issue. Homeless population are at risk for chronic illness making them vulnerable to volience and substance abuse. This population has limited access to resources; difficulty in essentials of daily living: food, clothing, shelter. Often these individual has an underlining mental health issues or substance abuse problems. They do not have support outside their homeless community. Also, these people are judged quickly and written off as a loss cause, helpless or addicts. Identifying vulnerable populations and risk groups are part of the a nurses role we are responsible for an advocate on their behalf, collaborating with case managers, social workers, etc. for referrals meditation and resources. However, as a healthcare worker, we can do our part continue to advocate; often this group returns to what they know, but that is not a reason to give up and stop being a
Homeless youth are always dealing with poor nutrition, victimization, substance use, and abuse. Unfortunately the services provided are very limited and cannot help a huge chunk of the homeless youth. Homeless youth experience more substance abuse and drug addiction than non-homeless youth, this causes them to be mentally unstable and unable to be a functioning member of society. There are many temporary services provided such as shelters, drop-ins, meal programs, literacy improvements, and counselling programs; although these are available and there to help the youth, they are all flawed in their own ways. What the government does not take into consideration is the long term solutions to put youth in poverty to an end.
In a perfect world, the simple answer or recommendation on improving homelessness chemical dependency would be to end poverty finally once and for all yet that is easier said than done. With the development of new diseases, these individuals are being exposed and spreading diseases to other individuals. Substance abuse cannot improve without more emphasizes being placed on creating stability for this population. Just like any mental disorder, addiction should be treated with the same urgency. Treating someone for a day does not improve their situation tomorrow because they will still be homeless.
This can be achieved through policies such as rent control and the construction of new affordable housing units. Additionally, we can work with local landlords to encourage them to accept tenants who are receiving rental assistance. Another critical step is to provide homeless individuals with access to medical and mental health services. This can be achieved by partnering with local healthcare providers and offering free or low-cost healthcare services to homeless individuals. Mental health services are particularly important, as many homeless individuals suffer from mental health problems that prevent them from accessing housing and employment
If we work together, share our knowledge, and pool our resources, we can develop and implement more effective programs to reduce and eliminate homelessness. Best Solution The best approach is to help with substance abuse and mental health. According to an atricle written by Peter Tarr, “Most researchers agree that the connection between homelessness and mental illness is a complicated, two-way relationship. An individual’s mental illness may lead to cognitive and behavioral problems that make it difficult to earn a stable income or to carry out daily activities in ways that encourage stable housing.”
Values Conflict in Homelessness The National Association of Social Workers (NASW, 2009) Code of Ethics is a guide to social workers’ practice by offering standards, values, and principles. The Code of Ethics is useful in facilitating the social workers’ decision-making process when he is presented with complicate ethical issues. Ethical issues arise with conflicting values, principles, and standards.
These include among others, cost, government policies, ignorance, poor infrastructure and psychological factors. Cost involves high cost of healthcare both on the individual side and the health care providers’ side. Government policies should be set up in a way that looks after the health of its citizens. The ignorance of the homeless population when it comes to their own health and their psychological challenges also acts as a hindrance to accessing healthcare. If these hurdles are adequately addressed, the homeless population will be able to access quality healthcare just like the other populations.
It is stated that thirty-eight percent of homeless people abuse alcohol and twenty-six percent abuse drug. Some drug addicts and alcoholics become addicts when they are homeless already. However, some become homeless because of being dependent on drugs and alcohol most of their lives. Since they are dependent on drugs and alcohol their family will give up trying to help them, leaving them homeless and without any way of getting help. There are over forty-seven thousand American veterans who are homeless and seventy percent of those veterans are suffering from some form of mental illness.
Also, it would be beneficial to know more about their thoughts on health care. This can include barriers on why homeless individuals do not seek health care services, which can include lack of attainment of physical needs, affordability, resources, and compassion of healthcare providers ((Nickasch & Marnocha, 2009). This was my first time really working with homeless individuals that were seeking medical services, so I really did not know what to expect. During this event, I was overwhelmed by the feeling that I truly want to continue working with this population, and advocate for continue resources and events, like Homeless Connect, to help improve their quality of life. Overall, Homeless Connect was an educational and rewarding experience and benefited everyone that was
1. What does the term health disparities mean? Health disparities are preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations. Populations can be defined by factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, education, or income, disability, geographic location orientation.
The issue of homelessness in America has been evident since the early 1600’s. Across the country men, women and children spend their nights on the streets not knowing when or if they will ever find a permanent home. States and federal officials or city councils have tried to alleviate or at least reduce the number of homeless over the last several decades at a city, state or national level but it continues to be an ongoing problem. There is a multitude of factors that account for the growing homeless population that affects each state in the country differently. Though there are many contributing factors that contribute to the amount of people living on the street at any given night in the U.S.
A vulnerable population could mean a number of different things to a number of different people. The dictionary definition of vulnerable is as follows; "1. Capable of being physically or emotionally wounded or hurt" (1). Applying that to populations, the most basic form of a vulnerable population is a group of individuals at some sort of risk, whether that risk be poverty, illness, discrimination/violence, or death among other things (2). Age, sex, and unfortunately race can either increase or decrease the vulnerability of populations (3).
In a homeless person, the association of one or more chronic illnesses with substance abuse or mental illness appears to increase the risk of early death. Homelessness also has negative impacts on children; infants born into homelessness have low birth weights. Socioeconomic conditions those contribute to the prevalence of illness and early death among homeless population. Poor diet obesity, malnutrition, inadequate sleeping conditions, overcrowded shelters, limited facilities for adequate hygiene, exposure to violence and harsh elements, social isolation, depression and lack of health insurance are the factors involved for bad medical conditions. Initial medical visit for homeless person occur during outreach.
Women and children are overwhelming affected by this, with one in two homeless women with children in homeless services are escaping domestic violence (Homelessness in Australia 2012). In addition to domestic violence the other frequent seen causes of homelessness are, lack of affordable housing, intergenerational poverty, unemployment, mental illnesses and young people exiting state care (Homelessnessaustralia.org.au, 2015). A common misconception is that mental health and drug addiction are the main circumstances for people being homeless(Roger, June 2015) .Although there is a link between the two circumstances most homeless individuals develop mental health issues and drug addiction after living on the streets for a long period of time (Homelessness in Australia 2012).
According to the Suitcase Clinic organization homelessness means a temporary condition that people fall into when they cannot afford to pay for a place to live, or when their current home is unsafe or unstable. (Suitcase Clinic Organization ) Main reasons being homeless: cyclical nature of mental health/ substance abuse, unavailability of affordable accommodation-waiting lists for public housing and lack of reasonably priced houses. For example, in UK and USA housing stocks are unaffordable.
Homelessness is a significant complex societal problem. Many people think homelessness is an individual problem, but I think society has a large factor on why people become homeless. Individuals who are homeless are not lazy like most of society thinks. These people are struggling with societal problems such as living costs and mostly cannot support themselves financially. In my eyes, Homelessness is a factor of societal forces such as high cost of housing and living and also society having failed systems to support people who are stuck in these sorts of situations.