Paper Example on Relationship Between Homelessness and Poor Health

Introduction

I agree with the fact that homelessness is now becoming a concern in the American society.Over the past few decades, homelessness has quickly taken a wide range of forms. Research also points towards the fact that there is a close relationship between homelessness and poor health. According to s research published by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), over half a million people are homeless in the U.S. Most people are spending the night either in homeless shelters or some short-term transitional housing. The absence of affordable housing is the chief source of homelessness, with other circumstances taking a role as well. The homeless are relatively susceptible to severe and prolonged diseases compared to the non-homeless. This part of the population is associated with many physical and mental illnesses.

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The general observation made by investigating the relationship between homelessness and health problems shows some interactions. First, some health problems start and finally lead to homelessness. Taking, for example, a family struggling to pay rent; at the course of that, a serious illness may start and drive them to homelessness which may begin from losing the job, diminution of savings to cater for health care and finally getting evicted from their rental property. Secondly, other diseases are caused by homelessness. Homeless people are often unable to meet their daily needs which include safety, food, healthcare services, and housing; these are the risk factors for sickness. Also, homelessness may make it difficult for treatment of some diseases.

Categories of chronic health problems are extremely high among the homeless, mental illness taking the highest portion. According to Bill Quigley (2017), while about 6 percent of the general population suffers from the severe mental illness, 20 to 25 percent of the homeless suffer from severe mental illness and half of this population self-medicate and are at further risk for addiction and poor physical health. Homelessness affects all kind of groups is it children, adults or adolescents. Homeless adolescents seem to be going through some health issues including substance abuse, pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and oral health. They also face legal issues relating to their healthcare in that they are not aware of their medical care and also the government has failed to enact laws to cater for them.

Conclusion

In trying to cater to the needs of the homeless, I think that housing issue should be the first to be addressed to reduce health problems. Worldwide access to affordable, high standard and all-inclusive health care is also necessary for bringing to end homelessness. Furthermore, program models should be developed and enacted into the law by the government in support to the homeless. Many countries have come up with policies to curb this, but there remains a lot to be down to bring homelessness to zero.

References

Nilsson, S. F., Laursen, T. M., Hjorthoj, C., & Nordentoft, M. (2018). Homelessness as a predictor of mortality: an 11-year register-based cohort study. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 53(1), 63-75.

Bill Quigley .(2016, December 6) Homelessness Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-quigley/ten-facts-about-homelessn_b_5977946.html

Sperling, J., Lloyd, P., Helms, V., & Brittain, J. (2017). Administrative, legal, and organizational hurdles in data linkage: Experiences and lessons from the recent National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)-US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) data linkage project. International Journal for Population Data Science, 1(1).