...DEVELOPMENT IN HUMAN SERVICES April 19, 2015 Introduction: Homelessness has become a national issue. “At a point in time in January 2012, 633,782 people were experiencing homelessness. The national rate of homelessness was 20 homeless people per 10,000 people in the general population. The rate for Veterans was 29 homeless Veterans per 10,000 Veterans in the general population” (N.A.E.H, 2013). Due to the lack of affordable housing has resulted in vast and growing homelessness among individuals and families. Homelessness is not only a type of poverty but also a severe state of residential instability. Homelessness is increased by behavioral problems, alteration of mental health rule, differences in health and health care, racial disparities, substance abuse, domestic violence, variation in affordable housing, and lack of social support. Thesis Statement: The deficiency of affordable housing has resulted in widespread homelessness and has become a national problem The" Mission for the National Homeless" has decided to combat homelessness by providing food, shelter and other benefits and services to the homeless people. We will focus on providing housing, food distribution to fight hunger, educational, vocational and other services. We intend to fund our programs through private donations as well as federal and state funding. Problem: “Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines homelessness as those individuals whose main nighttime residence is in private...
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...health crisis? Or was it successful with providing individuals who were suffering from a mental illness or intellectual developmental disability an opportunity of achieving their hopes and dreams and doing so by receiving supports in the least restrictive environment possible. The goal of deinstitutionalization was to develop a full range of community services that would take the place of institutions. Several driving forces were behind this: the development of psychiatric drugs, the belief that people should receive treatment as opposed to institutionalization, and federal policy and funding. Many hoped that these factors would greatly reduce and perhaps even eliminate mental illness. The individual transitioning from institutions, their family, and society were all impacted by this new direction. Most were not prepared for this move. The lack of planning and adequate treatment led to many unforeseen consequences such as homelessness and incarceration. A shift to community based care was encouraged through the Mental Health Centers Act of 1963. Various services were offered but unfortunately they focused more on helping people who did not present a serious mental illness. Mental health reform has come a long way since the start of deinstitutionalization. Today, individuals with a mental illness or intellectual developmental disability have a much larger option of services they can receive to assist them with remaining active members of their community. History of...
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...Homelessness in America Homelessness in America is a social problem that we are faced with on a daily basis. Despite the vast number of research done by Americans on homelessness, little is still known about the effect that it has on our society. The overall image that emerges from the effects of homeless people is negative: they’re seen as lazy, drug users, alcoholics, and worthless. This study recovers some of the homelessness perspective for an American audience through research, data, and an interview by a homeless person living in Georgia. This study will allow explanations and will challenge three widely held assumptions of the homeless people living in America: 1) Homeless people are lazy; 2) Homeless people are all drug and alcohol users and abusers; 3) Homeless people brought it on themselves. This research is to add nuance to our understanding about the social problem stated. Homelessness qualifies as a “social problem” because it doesn’t just affect the homeless but the nation as well. This paper will hopefully contribute more knowledge and understanding about the effects of homelessness in America. There has been a plethora of research done on homelessness in America since the 1980’s, but there has been changing quality and has left areas uninvestigated. According to Ravenhill (2011), In 2000 there was a survey done by researchers...
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...Homeless Persons Heather Gustafson Axia College of University of Phoenix Homeless Persons A problem that continues to grow in the United States is Homeless people. Millions of people are homeless due to a variety of circumstances and the number still grows daily. History In the United States, de-institutionalization of the mentally ill -- unaccompanied by promised outpatient psychiatric and social services -- led to a large increase in the homeless, mentally ill population in the late 1970s. The number of homeless grew in the 1980s, as housing and social service cuts increased. This was in part a consequence of the transfer of federal dollars to a huge military buildup (including the spectacularly wasteful and unsuccessful "Star Wars" strategic missile defense initiative) and consequent large budget deficits. Fortunately, public compassion soared, and in 1986, 5 million Americans joined hands across the country to raise money for homeless programs (May 25, 1986 Hands Across America). In 1987, the McKinney Act authorized millions of dollars for housing and hunger relief (Donahue, 2007). Nature and Issues of Social Problems Homeless and poverty go together. People are unable to pay for food, clothing, shelter, child care, health care, and education. Choices have to be made to have what they need for their daily life so they have to put other things behind to cover necessities. Domestic violence leads people to become homeless because they are...
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...Homelessness is a major problem in our society today. No one can get around homelessness; it is a problem that needs a lot of attention. I have seen the stereotype that others believe that those who do not have a home or a job are not regular people. The reason I choose homelessness is because I know of someone with a child that lost her job and is about to be evicted from her apartment. The purpose of this paper is to examine different groups of homeless people and different neighborhood characteristics. We examined the complexities of physical and social environment surrounding people living on the street and in shelters. A better way to understand these environment is to use census data as indicators of social, economic, and housing conditions...
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...Flor Payan Prof. Jane Doe ENG 1102 November 17, 2014 Homelessness: Its Roots and Implications Everybody has been in touch with homelessness in America in one way or another. Either by looking at homeless people on the streets while driving home, or in a more unfortunate way, by dealing with it personally or knowing someone who deals with homelessness. It is clear that homelessness is a multifactorial problem, and its ramifications and consequences go beyond the simple fact of not having a home to call our own. Homelessness seems to affect more some segments of the population and some ethnic backgrounds more than others. With such facts, we can ask: what is the origin of homelessness? How someone becomes homeless? What can we do, as a society, to fight homelessness? And more importantly, why the strategies designed to fight homelessness are not working as effectively as expected? Considering the fact that hundreds of thousands of people are homeless and millions more at risk, as moderate estimates tell, the problem is clearly worse than we would like to think. There are clearly understood circumstances that create homelessness in America. Now “it is generally believed that the increase incidence of homelessness in the US has arisen from broad societal factors”, and economist and sociologists have found that homelessness is directly related to “changes in the institutionalization of the mentally ill, increases in drug addiction and alcohol usage, etc” (Quigley and Raphael)...
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...social services” (Donohoe, 2004). Although it is everyone’s right to have access to those necessities, it is not always the case for many, who for whatever reasons, have no means to afford them. Here in the United States, the current unemployment situation as well as record foreclosures has forced many people to become homeless. “The term homelessness refers to the condition of individuals without a regular dwelling and that term is used to describe people who do not have a home and whom sleep on the street but it is also commonly used to refer to individuals whose primary night-time residence is a homeless shelter, a warming center or another ad hoc type of housing” (NPACH, 2011). The homeless face many problems in day-to-day living and this paper will focus on this group as a vulnerable population will discuss the history of the homeless, the nature of homelessness as a social problem, what issues they experience, their demographic, their common clinical issues, intervention strategies used for this particular group, and finally, what interventions are planned for the future. History of the Homeless Population For years, homelessness has been an ongoing problem in countries around the world, including developed countries like the United States of America. Although many community programs have existed for years, the very first known rescue mission for the homeless was established in 1872 in New York City (NPACH, 2011). By the end of the Civil War, thousands of people were...
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...I strongly believes that there needs to be more done in the state of North Carolina for the homeless. Teresa M. Holmes HS5401 March 14, 2014 Dr. Edward Muldrow Abstract The homeless population is aging faster that the general population in the U.S. As this vulnerable population continues to age, and having to address the health and housing needs is becoming increasing important. This will address overlooked concerns of homeless older adults, including their poor health status and unique care needs, the factors contribute to homelessness in this population, and the costs of homelessness among older adults, including to the U.S. health care system. The majority of homeless populations are people of color. There has been little study of racial differences among the homeless population, and racial finding have not been reported separately for homeless man and women. There is a study which the (MCKV) The McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Improvement Act of 2001 which provides funds to local educational agencies (LEAs), is almost a decade old, yet no evaluations of its academic effectiveness have been reported. Social networks analysis has utilized mathematical models and graphical constructs to examine information exchange and diffusion. Poverty has existed in some form in American society and individual shortcomings and inadequacies in explaining the raise of the homeless over the past several decades. Poverty has existed in the some form in America society since...
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...Internet Activity #1 In the present day, those with minor to moderate mental illnesses can receive outpatient therapy and medication. Access problems still exist, however, with many mental health services not being covered by insurance. Those with severe mental illnesses often do not fare well, even now. Many are relegated to prison or face homelessness. Many are afraid to seek treatment, while those who do are often discriminated against. There is still a stigma attached to mental illness, though it is nowhere near as severe as in the age of routine eugenic sterilization. While the circumstances currently faced by those suffering from psychological abnormalities are not optimal, they reflect a vast improvement from the era of institutionalization. Had Philippe Pinel not had a friend who met with a terrible fate due to psychological abnormality, he may not have ever had the impact he did through promotion of Moral Treatment. Pinel had a great many talents and interests. He was a skilled mathematician and doctor, yet he stepped outside the norms of the time and made it known that conditions inside mental asylums were unacceptable and utterly inhumane. Pinel also revolutionized the...
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...Institutionalization, or the organized effort for the care of the mentally ill, began in America in the mid-18th century with the Philadelphia Quakers. Our country’s historical efforts towards providing care to the masses of those deemed mentally-deficient is certainly a storied one; now, with an almost infamous air, the concept of institutionalized care seems barbaric to the modern-day citizen. Although its reputation as an uncivilized and inhumane practice precedes it, institutionalization was not always viewed in the unfavorable light with which it is today. Many groups and notable figures throughout American history fought hard to bring the concept of institutionalization to reality, perhaps most notably, Dorothea Dix. However, as the...
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...31, 1963, President Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Centers Act into law. Starting in the mid 1970’s, deinstitutionalization began to take affect, shutting down metal hospitals (Sheth). However, the policy of deinstitutionalization has since failed miserably. According to US Congressman Ted Strickland, thousands of mentally ill patients are being dumped out of state hospitals into communities that do not have the adequate services to receive them (Sheth). These efforts are known as "the deinstitutionalization movement", and have resulted in trans-institutionalization, in which huge numbers of mentally ill individuals lands in jails, prisons, homeless shelters, and flop houses (Sheth). Because of this, approximately one-third of homeless persons suffer from severe and disabling mental illnesses...
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...26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older or about one in four adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. When applied to the 2004 U.S. Census residential population estimate for ages 18 and older, this figure translates to 57.7 million people (Health, 2006-2012).” Mental illness is known to be one of the leading causes of American disabilities in the United States and Canada. Individual can suffer from more than one disorder at the same time. There may be one mental illness that is related to another and an individual may be diagnosed with both due to traits from one illness. Individuals who suffer from mental disorders are sometimes born with them or have developed them from life time events such as institutionalization, drugs, or alcohol. Some mental illness that individuals may suffer from are suicide, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, social phobia, autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, self bodily injury, and a list of others. A common disorder among the chronically mentally ill is schizophrenia. Schizophrenia affects about 1.1 percent of the population of age 18 and older. It is something that affects both men and women with...
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...Mental Illness and Homelessness When most people hear the term, "homeless" they more than likely initially think of the physical hardships of being without a home. If you're homeless, where do you sleep? What do you do without a bathroom, or a shower? How do you live without all of the everyday possessions most people take for granted, like a toothbrush or a comb or a child's beloved stuffed animal? Most People, however, do not consider the effects being homeless can have on a person's mental health. The stress that they endure and the depression that can overwhelm become secondary to their physical and material trials and tribulations. However, the mental effects are just as important, affecting the mind that is ultimately the powerhouse and control center for the body. Being mentally ill does not occur as a result of being homeless. Mental illness may just be more prominent among the homeless. Most people are mentally ill before they become homeless and are affected by their respective symptoms before they're out on the streets. Oftentimes as a result of their mental illness they are unable to keep up with their bills or take care of themselves. This is what leads to their being homeless. If someone was living in a home and seeing a doctor, then their symptoms could be under control. After becoming homeless, since they can't afford to see a doctor, their mental illness could surface more readily. Over 40 years have passed since many psychiatric institutions in the United...
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...special facilities designed for treatment, diagnosis and delivery of mental health prevention to persons living in the community. The centers were built to provide the following indispensable services: inpatient services, emergency services, education and consultation on mental health, outpatient services, partial hospitalization and emergency response. The donations were projected to provide 1500 more community mental health centers across the country (Dolan &Powell, 2001). The act was proposed because the country was experiencing an increased number of children and adults with mental illness. In mid-1950’s, over 500,000 adults and children were institutionalized for mental sickness. The public sentiment concerning the system of institutionalization started to transform. People questioned the usefulness of the...
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...According to INAC, the term for Aboriginal peoples is defined as: “a collective name for the original peoples of North America and their descendants. The Canadian constitution recognizes three groups of Aboriginal people: Indians (commonly referred to as First Nations), Métis and Inuit. These are three distinct peoples with unique histories, languages, cultural practices and spiritual beliefs. More than one million people in Canada identify themselves as an Aboriginal person, according to the 2006 Census.” (Indigenous Nationhood) Although many Aboriginal peoples in Canada identify as being Aboriginal, many Aboriginal peoples struggle to maintain or gain a sense of cultural identity due to the Canadian Governments assimilation policies. Throughout this paper I will discuss how the Indian Act, the Canadian Residential School System, and the Sixties Scoop assimilated Aboriginal peoples into a European way of life, by attempting to integrate them into society by abolishing their Aboriginal identities. This assimilation process impacted Aboriginal peoples in negative ways throughout the generations socially, culturally, and economically. The negative impacts within child welfare system, educational institutions, and the socio-economic status of Aboriginal peoples today, prove assimilation and the total integration of Aboriginal peoples within mainstream society is unacceptable. Decolonization techniques should be applied within those areas in order combat the long lasting effects of...
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