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Homelessness Homelessness is a condition of people without a regular residence. People who are homeless are usually unable to acquire and maintain regular, safe, secure, and adequate housing. Homeless people constitute a demographically diverse population, and the situation is a critical problem in United States. The homeless are known as “the wondering poor”, “sturdy beggars”, and “vagrants”. This condition often occurs due to poverty, but this is only one of many reasons a person can be homeless. In addition to poverty, homelessness occurs as a result of drugs, mental illness, disasters such as hurricanes, or even domestic abuse. It is not a criminal activity. Once a person is on the streets, it is hard to stand on their own feet again. …show more content…
In the absence of appropriate treatment, it may doom one 's chances of getting housing once on the streets. Those with drug addictions forage for anything that they can sell to get their next fix. They do not worry about their taxes or next car payment. Homeless people often face overwhelming barriers to obtaining health care, including addictive disorder treatment services and recovery supports. However, experts point out that substance abuse co-occurs with mental illness: Often, people with untreated mental illnesses use street drugs as an inappropriate form of self-medication. Homeless people with both substance disorders and mental illness experience additional obstacles to recovery, such as increased risk for violence and victimization and frequent cycling between the streets, jails, and emergency rooms (Fisher and Roget nationalhomeless.org). Clearly, they are aware of the …show more content…
After Hurricane Katrina the number of homeless multiplied four times more than the previous number. Natural disasters often cause current housing situations to become untenable and costly repairs are often simply not feasible. With the destruction left by natural disasters, come criminal problems like robberies and other social problems such as lack of basic services, insecurity, and health problems. Disasters leave the middle classes near poverty, and the poor, homeless. With this drop in the quality of life, it’s harder to resolve homelessness, and people end up waiting for help that may never come. This increase of poor and homeless people, leave this population more vulnerable toward future disasters (Homeless in the US and Natural
Boughton, Barbara. "Substance Abuse Rife Among Homeless With Mental Illness." Medscape Medical News. Medscape, 04 Nov. 2011. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.
Kathleen’s book brings up many detailed facts about how homelessness is a never ending situation due to mental illness, poverty, social structure and political parties. She discusses how much of society groups Illegal immigrants, mentally ill, jobless and many other categories under the homeless category.
Sun, A., (2012). Helping homeless individuals with co-occurring disorders: The four components. National Association of Social Workers, 57(1), 23-37.
Mental health disorders and substance use disorders are apparent within the population of individuals who are homeless. Mental health disorders and substance use disorders have varying factors that can cause a person to develop each disorder separately. People can often suffer immensely from each one individually. Mental health and substance use disorders can cause significant distress in the lives of those diagnosed. The opposite can also be said that significant distress can cause mental health and substance use disorders. The difference depends on a number of factors such as genetics, environment, resiliency, gender, and age. However, recovery from homelessness, mental health, and substance use disorders is possible if the right resources are available.
These disorders were rampant among the clients that were seeking help at the Tulsa Day Center. Combined with the lack of personal space, good hygiene, wellness, stress and lack of natural supports these disorders put these clients at a higher risk for other diseases and health related problems. According to an article published by the Institute of Medicine, “Not only can homelessness be a consequence of mental illness, but a homeless life may cause and perpetuate emotional problems. ….. The major mental illnesses, principally schizophrenia and the affective disorders (bipolar and major depressive disorders), are unlikely to result from the trauma of homelessness. Rather, they cause a level of disability and impaired social functioning in some people that, in the absence of adequate treatment and support, may lead to homelessness, which will then exacerbate these conditions (Fischer and Breakey, 1986)” (Institute of Medicine). This article links an individual’s mental health to the state of being homeless and the snowball effect it has on the struggles in their
Homelessness in the United States has been an important subject that the government needs to turn its attention to. There has been announced in the news that the number of the homeless people in many major cities in the United States has been increasing enormously. According to United States Interagency Council on Homelessness reported that there was an estimation of 83,170 individuals have experienced chronic homelessness on the streets of the United States’ streets and shelters on only a single night of January 2015, which is a small decrease of only 1% from the previous year (People Experiencing Chronic Homelessness, n.d.). The United States must consider this subject that most of the people underestimate it and not pay attention
Gerhard Buchkremer, “Prevalence of mental illness among homeless men in the community,” Original Paper Journal 40 (October 2004): 385, EBSCO Academic Search Premier (accessed February 29, 2012).
There are two types of homelessness, chronic and situational. A chronically homeless person is someone who has been homeless for over a long period of time. Stereotypically speaking, chronically homeless people usually are drug addicts or they have some type of mental health issue. The actual case in that theory is that: a vast majority of the chronically homeless suffer from serious mental illnesses (like schizophrenia), severe substance addiction, or a physical disability. People with mental health illnesses cannot help being homeless. Most lose their jobs due to their illness, causing them to not be able to work or to get a job, eventually leading them to not be financially capable to take care of themselves. This contributes to their
After reviewing the literature, this author pinpointed several environmental, individual, and agent factors, which make up the epidemiologic triad, contribute to the topic of mental health in the homeless.
Imagine a man on the streets, who society has forgotten. This man emits the smell of garbage; he has not bathed in months. This man sits quietly mumbling to himself. To the outer world he is just one of the many homeless, but little does society know that this man has a mental illness as well. Homelessness and mental illness are linked. These two happenings have similar beginnings. Homelessness is influenced by drug and alcohol disuse, being homeless at a young age, money problems, and trauma symptoms. Mental illness is caused by many of the same things, but it can also happen at birth. The effects that each entity has on a person are comparable. Rehabilitation is a necessary process if a victim of homelessness and or mental illness wants to rejoin society. Homelessness and mental illness have similar, if not the same causes, effects, and rehabilitations.
The idea of homelessness is not an effortlessly characterized term. While the normal individual comprehends the essential thought of vagrancy, analysts in the sociological field have connected conflicting definitions to the idea of homelessness, justifiably so as the thought includes a measurement more exhaustive than a peculiar meaning of a single person without living arrangement. Homelessness embodies a continuum running from the nonappearance of a changeless safe house to poor living courses of action and lodging conditions. As per Wolch et al. (1988), homelessness is not an unexpected experience rather it is the zenith of a long procedure of investment hardship, disconnection, and social disengagement that has influenced a singular or family. Furthermore, states of vagrancy may come in fluctuating structures, for example, road habitation, makeshift home in safe houses, or help from administration associations, for example, soup kitchens and the Salvation Army. Homeless is characterized as those regularly poor and, once in a while, rationally sick individuals who are unable to uphold a spot to live and, subsequently, regularly may rest in boulevards, parks, and so forth (Kenyon 1991).
Walking down the streets of large cities it is common to see men, women, and sometimes even whole families laying beside buildings. Some people may ignore them and keep walking, some feel frightened, and some see the homeless as a human being and treat them like one. These people tend to be dirty, smelly, or they have a sad look that has overtaken their faces because of their struggle to survive. The people sleeping outside of buildings are homeless. Being homeless means not having anywhere to call home, although it also can mean living in a place that was never intended to house humans, such as a bus stop or a highway underpass. It is tempting to wedge the homeless together under a single label but there are an abundance of contrasting causes
How would individuals with a mental illness who are homeless perceive their situation and how are they dealing with it?
Many chronically homeless people have a serious mental illness like schizophrenia and/or an alcohol or drug
This great nation of awesome power and abundant resources is losing the battle against homelessness. The casualties can be seen on the street corners of every city in American holding an ?I will work for food? sign. Homeless shelters and rescue missions are at full capacity. There is no room at the inn for the nation?s indigent. Anyone who has studied this issue understands that homelessness is a complex problem. Communities continue to struggle with this socio-economic problem while attempting to understand its causes and implement solutions. The public and private sectors of this country are making a difference in the lives of the homeless by addressing the issues of housing, poverty and education.