ACD: Helping Homeless People Meet Basic Needs Across the US - Case Study

Introduction

Association for Community Development (ACD) is a nonprofit organization that aims at helping homeless people meet their basic human needs. The agency has its principal office in New York, with several branches across the country. ACD brings together human service professionals interested in applying interdisciplinary knowledge and skills to assist homeless people in coping with different domains of living. In this facility, social workers serve clients from all walks of life, including people of different cultures, ethnicity, religions, genders, and ages. The organization has a group home, where homeless people in need of care, supervision, and support live together as they develop skills that would enhance their success. As one of the professionals in this agency, my work is to help such individuals find permanent or temporary housing through resource referrals. Importantly, here I play leading roles in assisting the homeless people in locating organizations that serve meals, help vulnerable groups get jobs, and develop skills that would improve their lives. My task also involves identifying homeless individuals with complex health problems and helping them find treatment or therapy that would address their conditions.

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Client Name and Demographics

Carol Caroline is among the clients who have enrolled in ACD's programs. The client is of female gender and currently has 32 years. Notably, Carol is single and has one child who is now two years old. In terms of education, the client is a secondary school dropout. Carol is Chinese, implying that she hails from a minority ethnic group in the United States. Concerning religion, Carol is a Christian practicing the faith and beliefs of the Orthodox Church.

The Problem

Lack of Basic Human Needs

The client is homeless and cannot afford the commodities necessary for survival. As a result, she is not always able to sleep, eat, and even receive essential healthcare services. The client also lacks formal skills, implying that she is not equipped to find a job. The primary reason why the client enrolled in the services of ACD is to get help in finding organizations that serve food and, more importantly, agencies that can get her either temporary or permanent housing. To this client, getting a house and fundamental human needs would dramatically change her life.

Difficulty Adjusting to Different Cultures

Carol, as an immigrant from the Republic of China, finds it challenging to adjust to the American way of life. She enrolled in the services and programs of ACD to get assistance in learning English and adjusting to cultural differences within the country. These components are essential to the client as it would enable her to find resources like housing, jobs, and healthcare.

Client's Main Goals/Interventions

To Alleviate Crisis By Acquiring Basic Human Needs

The client wants to get essential needs, including a house as a way to overcome homelessness. The organization offers a wide range of services, which would help Carol to achieve this goal. In this regard, ACD has resource referral programs through which its social services workers can connect the clients with agencies that provide necessities like food, shelter, water, and clothing. Carol would benefit from these services since she is in a vulnerable group.

To Get a Job and Become a More Independent Woman

Carol is interested in using the services and programs of the Association for Community Development to empower herself, which in turn, would make her an independent woman. The client would make good use of ACD training programs to acquire essential skills. Through such services, Carol would be able to open a small business or get a job.

To Reconnect the Client With Her Relatives

Carol wants the agency to help her reconcile with family members and reconnect with close friends. Association for Community Development has a group home where clients in need of such services can get assistance. The agency believes that no one should define the homeless people by what they lack because everyone is someone's somebody. This way, ACD's reunion service would enable the client to connect with relatives in a supportive and positive way.

Other Needs

Child Welfare Services

The client needs child care support services from foster organizations. Currently, Carol has emotional and psychological challenges because she is worried about the present and the future of her only child. Whereas ACD does not provide foster care services, it connects the clients with outside agencies that can help them through resource referrals. Several government agencies offer child support services that would be of help to Carol.

Mental Health Treatment

Carol needs counseling services to cope with depression and overcome stress. These mental issues developed as a result of challenges like lack of access to health care, deteriorating physical health, economic loss, and burden of the caring task. ACD would counsel the client in collaboration with organizations that offer a wide range of psychotherapy services. Resource referrals in this area would enable Carol to benefit from interpersonal therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and exposure therapy, among other forms of mental health treatment.

The State of the Client/Crisis Situation

Basic Needs Insecurity

Carol is in the middle of a crisis since she lacks basic human needs. At the moment, she does not have food and safe shelter. Besides, the client does not have proper clothes to keep her child warm. This phenomenon exposes the client and her child diseases, especially during cold seasons. Notably, Carol spends her time in overcrowded streets, and it has been difficult for well-wishers to help her because she moves from one place to another, looking for food.

Deteriorating Mental Health

The client is at risk of severe psychological distress. Several mental issues, including stress and depression, have caused Carol to roam in towns while uttering different words that no one can understand. The burden of caring for the child, looking for basic human needs, and difficulty communicating with Americans has worsened the state of her mental health. These elements show that Carol is in crisis and requires immediate interventions to improve her life.

Recommendations

Assist the Client Register in Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) Program

Human service workers at ACD should help Carol register in federal programs that aim at addressing chronic homelessness. Research shows that PSH is one of the most effective evidence-based practices for solving the problem of homelessness (Wenzel et al., 2018). In the past years, the government has been offering PSH services as a solution to troubling homelessness (Wenzel et al., 2018). Here, resource referrals are essential in helping the client register for permanent supportive housing. One of the organizations that can assist her in enrolling in the federal program is the National Alliance to End Homelessness. As one of the professionals at ACD, I would be making follow-ups after referring the client to the housing resources in my jurisdiction.

ACD Should Implement Critical Time Intervention (CTI) Programs

Association for Community Development, through its professionals, should monitor the client to prevent feelings of social isolation upon discharge from the organization's group home. Wenzel et al. (2018) argued that human services professionals should focus on developing social relationship goals that promote the well-being of their clients as they transition to PSH. CTI, according to De Vet (2017), is a vital evidence-based intervention that helps homeless people overcome psychological distress after receiving treatment and recovery interventions.

Research has indicated that social integration is a challenge to the recovery and the progress of formerly homeless people (Wenzel et al., 2018). This way, ACD's employees would plan the implementation of critical time intervention programs as part of the client's progress interventions. Steptoe et al. (2013) found that social isolation can damage the well-being of the client within the PSH program. As such, CTI programs are necessary for the future health of Carol as it helps prevent psychological issues upon release from the group home at ACD.

Partner and Collaborate With Foster Care Organizations

ACD should help the client in areas beyond the scope of its work through resource referrals. Importantly, here is that the organization should identify local foster care agencies that can assist Carol to raise the child while she is still in a group home. When identifying such entities, ACD's human service employees ought to assess information such as the availability of child care subsidies and state licensing requirements, to mention a few. Resource referral in this area is of great importance as the burden of caring for the child has caused stress to Carol, and it adversely impacts the well-being of the client.

Offer the Client Counselling and Motivational Interviewing (MI) Services

Professional counselors at ACD should encourage and motivate Carol. More importantly, they should design interventions that would help the client to overcome the mental problems that she is currently facing. As a way to provide hope and encouragement to Carol, counselors ought to help her get connected to primary care physicians, psychiatrists, organizations that serve food, and the like. Improving access to doctors provides an opportunity to enhance the client's mental and overall health condition. The reason is that Carol, as a homeless woman, could be at risk of multiple illnesses since she has not been in a position to access physical exam services in a health care facility. By connecting the client to a doctor, her overall health condition would improve as it offers a chance to resolve unaddressed issues. In this sense, human service professions can make internal referrals since the Association for Community Development has collaborated with several medical clinics.

Additionally, ACD should implement motivational interviewing services to improve the mental health of the client by addressing ambivalence to change. MI, according to Van den Berk-Clark (2014), is an evidence-based practice that is useful for promoting intrinsic motivation to change. It is helpful to the client as it is most likely that Carol would be experiencing conflicting feelings about the outcomes of the change and the process. Besides, MI offers an opportunity for the client to manage depressive symptoms and, more importantly, express her desire for change after release from a group home. The client, for instance, will decide whether to venture into self-employment or enroll in public benefit programs that would enable her to get a job. Registering Carol in unemployment insurance programs would also be of great importance in supporting her to overcome economic challenges that come with homelessness.

References

De Vet, R., Beijersbergen, M. D., Jonker, I. E., Lako, D. A., Van Hemert, A. M., Herman, D. B., & Wolf, J. R. (2017). Critical time intervention for homeless people making the transition to community living: A randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Community Psychology, 60(1-2), 175-186. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12150

Steptoe, A., Shankar, A., Demakakos, P., & Wardle, J. (2013). Social isolation, loneliness, and all-cause mortality in older men and women. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(15), 5797-5801. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1219686110

Van den Berk-Clark, C., Patterson Silver Wolf, D. A., & Ramsey, A. (2014). Motivational interviewing in permanent supportive housing.