Operation Safety Net is a local program for the city of Pittsburgh that strives to better the lives of individuals who are homeless. As described on the program’s website, Operation Safety Net provides its consumers with necessary health care and an increase of hope and self-esteem (Operation Safety Net, 2015). This program has proven to help close the critical health inequity of homeless individuals living without healthcare. Healthy People 2020 define a health disparity as, “a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantage.” (Disparities, para 6, 2015). This includes individuals having access to safe housing, culturally aware health care professionals and the opportunity to have health insurance. Therefore, there is a clear rationale for the Operation Safety Net program to be assisting people in Pittsburgh experiencing these inequities. Operation Safety Net is funded by the Pittsburgh Mercy Health System through the Sisters of Mercy (Operation Safety Net, 2015). The Sisters of Mercy have been in the United States and in Pittsburgh since 1843 serving the poor through several social justice efforts. Also, Pittsburgh Mercy Health System funds several large initiatives in Pittsburgh including Mercy Behavioral Health (About Us, 2015). Based on the history and credibility Pittsburgh Mercy Health System has in this region, it is viable that Operation Safety Net will be funded long-term. Furthermore, the
Operation Urgent Fury was a response by the U.S. government to the socio-political situation happening at the time on the island of Grenada. Due to anti-government upheaval, a growing communist presence in the area and a significant number of Americans on the island, the Reagan administration felt the need to intervene with military force to normalize the situation. Operation Urgent Fury could have been more successful if U.S. forces had sufficient intelligence to include enemy disposition, adequate maps and known locations of all the U.S. medical students located on and outside of the campus St. George’s University Medical
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
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
Homelessness affects one fifth of the United States population (Hwang et al., 2010). The homeless population experience health conditions at higher rates than the general population and fifty percent of them are uninsured or lack access to health care services (Kar, Kumar, Singh, & Upadhyay, 2015). This study examine the homeless population and examines their level of health care utilization to demonstrate that homeless individuals are intensive users of health services. Tracing the sample population 's health care encounters is critical in and addressing the gaps they face in access to healthcare and understanding the importance of health access as a result of their vulnerable situations. The researchers discovered that homeless people with provincial health cards were accessing health services at high rates, specifically Emergency Department and inpatient hospital visits. Despite the study 's comprehensive assessment of high utilization of health services amongst homeless people, the study is limited by a biased sampling strategy that favored participants with valid provisional health card numbers, use of secondary data analysis, and generalizations due to minimal references to other cities in California. Strengthening
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
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
In America’s finest city, vivid thoughts of beaches, sunshine, and excitement all come to mind. Pictures that do not come to mind are the streets that are lined with tents, trash bags full of clothes, old sleeping bags, and items that have value to the owner. All across America, homelessness perpetuates to expand and worsen. Homelessness has been a growing issue these past few years in San Diego and residents are finally speaking out about it. This is a concern that requires to be taken care in one way or another. Components of homelessness include lack of shelter, food, and medical care. One’s who suffer from homelessness are all different ages, races, and have a unique story of their own. It is time for the city of San Diego to find a solution to this matter of contention and pursue to put an end to homelessness.
First, government provides housing assistance to low-income families. Low-income families just need pay 30% of their total income for rent. Second, mainstream programs provide a safety net for homelessness. This net makes mainstream programs like housing assistance, welfare, and substance support could provide what homelessness need quickly. Third, Communities created a data system to record information about homelessness. These information could be analyzed to help people know the cause of people become homeless, how long people become homeless, what exactly homeless people need, and the effect of mainstream’s support. Government already saw some positive influence of these programs. The number of family homelessness decreased 43 percent in Hennepin Country. New York creased 11 percent of homeless families was placed by a permanent housing. (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2010)
Homelessness is an aspect of society, which most people chose not to acknowledge. With the increasing amount of issues the United States faces, homelessness tends to be forgotten when the time comes for the government to establish what issues they should assist. Due to the substantial amount of issues the government concerns itself with, homelessness does not receive the necessary attention required and is improperly handled. In today’s society poverty-stricken individuals or families is too much of a common occurrence to be treated as lightly as it is. Additional government intervention is necessary in order to supply the needed resources, which can prevent the further spread of homelessness. The United States government is obligated to protect its citizens and should care about the constant growth of homelessness. Through economic policies and community advertisements, the government can control the issue of individuals who are facing poverty.
Homelessness in the United States can be ended, not just maintained. Allot of cities now have plans to eradicate homelessness. Homelessness and housing instability are large issues that afflict a diverse demographic such as: Families, youth, veterans, and chronically homeless single male adults. Ending homelessness may require specialized solutions that are specific to individual needs. Factors like these make defeating homelessness a difficult task. Although solutions exist for some of the demographics, such as housing for chronically homeless adults, scaling up best practices remains a challenge. For other subpopulations, such as transitional aged youth, evidence-based interventions need to be developed. In this paper we argue that ending homelessness is a Grand Challenge that is big, important, and compelling—one that the profession of social work should be adopt. Meeting this challenge will require a focused, organized response from social work researchers, clinicians, and policymakers. Ending homelessness will require innovation and interdisciplinary or cross-sector collaboration. Key words: Housing First, Permanent Supportive Housing, rapid re-housing, prevention, poverty. The notion that homelessness in the United States can be ended, rather than managed (Mangano, 2002; National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2012), represents a fundamental shift in expectations from the 1980s and ’90s. Since the early 2000s, researchers, policymakers, advocates,
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
Every New Yorker has the right to a safe and affordable place to live in. New York’s shortage of affordable housing has reached a crisis point. Poor and elderly people throughout New York City are at a greater risk of homelessness and forced low-income residents do not have food or medical care to stay in their homes. A sinful structure of homelessness in New York City is New York’s shortage of affordable housing. Millions of New Yorkers are desperate to find affordable housing and tens of thousands are forced to live either in dirty shelters or on the streets. Recent data indicates that nearly 60,000 people, including more than 23,000 children, stay in the city’s main homeless shelter system (Guelpa). A small amount of poor renter households received a housing subsidy from the local government. Little assistance is being provided which means that most poor families and individuals that seek assistance
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.
Homelessness is a major social crisis in the United States of America. From 2014 to 2015, homelessness in America increased by 2 percent. The major sub-populations which comprise homeless people in America are unsheltered persons, families, chronically homeless people, and veterans (National Alliance to End Homelessness 3). In America, 15 percent of homeless people are defined as being chronically homeless, while 2 percent of homeless families are chronically homeless (ibid. 7). A person is defined as chronically homeless by the United States Government if they have been continually homeless for a year or more, or have experienced more than twelve months of homelessness in the last three years (Office
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