With homelessness levels rapidly increasing in the UK (Fitzpatrick et al., 2012), the necessity for a study analysing the spatial needs of homeless individuals who suffer from drug abuse and are housed in hostels/night shelters was paramount.
The task of the critical appraisal is to firstly, summarise the research article A Qualitative Exploration of the Spatial Needs of Homeless Drug Users Living in Hostels and Night Shelters (2013), discuss the methodology presented throughout it and further examine if whether it was appropriate for the topic. Towards the end, the research findings will be discussed and an assessment of whether the article is beneficial for the housing sector or not, will be provided, along with any possible recommendations.
The subject matter of the aforementioned journal article is an exploration of a sub-category of homeless individuals, namely drug users homeless. The correlation between homelessness and drug abuse and the vicious impact that each issues has on the other one, is sought throughout the article, reinforcing the need to tackle each one separately in order to reach an effective end result. After defining terms such as homelessness, drug use and night shelters, it continues to present a seven-fold categorisation of spatial needs that seem to not be met entirely by homeless accommodation providers. It argues that, according to Fitzpatrick and LaGory (2000), every individual requires a sense of privacy, safety, personal space and reasonable human interaction in order to maintain a healthy life and follows to provide definitions for the concepts of privacy and personal space. After presenting the layout of the article, it proceeds to discuss the methods applied for its research analysis and introdu...
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Greg Guest, Emily E. Namey, Marilyn L. Mitchell (2013) Collecting Qualitative Data, A Field Manual for Applied Research, Sage Publications
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Even with the daily struggle faced by youth in obtaining shelter and homelessness becoming a reality for a growing number of Canadians, Canada, with its high quality of life is one country that has always had a global long-standing reputation. This paper will be working towards giving the reader a better understanding with regards to homeless youth. It will be focusing on the reasons why they leave home, their lives on the street and steps they are trying to take to be able to leave the streets. An important finding from this research suggests, “the street youth population is diverse, complex, and heterogeneous”. According to Karabanow, made up of a number of subcultures including hardcore street-entrenched young people, squatters, group home kids, child welfare kids, soft-core twinkles, runaways, throwaways, refugees and immigrants is the generic term ‘street youth’.
This paper has given the reader a brief overview of homelessness in Australia, in particular, youth homelessness. Social research methods have also been explored, looking at the definition of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, and the purpose for each. It has been concluded that in order to examine young people’s experiences of homelessness, researchers should focus on qualitative methods of data collection.
Tunstall, L. (2009). Homelessness: an overview. EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page. Retrieved February 5, 2011, from http://web.ebscohost.com/pov/detail?hid=119&sid=d5f751fa-0d0d-4ed1-8deb-483e701af50c%40sessionmgr111&vid=3&bdata=Jmxhbmc9ZW4tY2Emc2l0ZT1wb3YtY2Fu#db=p3h&AN=28674966
Although most people know what homelessness is and it occurs in most societies, it is important to define because the forces of displacement vary greatly, along with the arrangement and meaning of the resulting transient state. The Stewart B McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 defined a homeless person as “an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence or a person who resides in a shelter, welfare hotel, transitional program or place not ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation, such as streets, cars, movie theaters, abandoned buildings, etc.” Resent surveys conducted in the U.S. have confirmed that the homeless population in America is extremely diverse and includes representatives from all segments of society, including: the old and young, men and women, single people and families, city dwellers and rural residents, whites and people of color, employed and unemployed, able workers and people with serious health problems. The diversity among people that are homeless reflects how difficult it is to generalize the causes of homelessness and the needs of homeless people. Robert Rosenheck M.D., the author of Special Populations of Homeless Americans, explains the importance of studying homelessness based on subgroups, “each subgroup [of homeless people] has unique service needs and identifying these needs is critical for program planning and design.” Despite these diversities, homelessness is a devastating situation for all that experience it. Not only have homeless people lost their dwelling, but they have also lost their safety, privacy, control, and domestic comfort.
Homelessness in Canada is seen as major social issue. In the 1980’s the homeless population started to increase . The increase of homelessness was lead by a variety of situations such as “crimin...
...icates that 95% of projects are catering for people with mental health needs and further research by Homeless Link shows that 7 out of 10 of homeless people experience one or more mental health problems. Their recent research findings on the mental health needs of homeless clients indicate that 44% of those with a mental health problem said they self medicate with drugs or alcohol; 35% of those with a mental health need said that they would like more support – including talking therapies and services for dual diagnosis; 60% of people in homelessness services have been found to be affected by complex trauma;14% of clients stated that they self-harm, compared with 4% of the population; one fifth of clients who had recently attended A&E had done so because of either mental health or self-harm; and only 10% of clients have additional support from mental health services.
Furthermore, as dominant discourse states that homelessness is due to individual failure much of the middle class and working poor criminalize individuals who are living on the streets. Therefore, it is crucial to recognize that in most cases homelessness is not the fault of the individual and directly related to the structural issues in society which it can then target any individual who may be in an economic
Many believe that a common thread among the homeless is a lack of permanent and stable housing. But beyond that, the factors leading to homelessness and the services that are needed are unique according to the individual. To put them into one general category ? the homeless- suggests that people are homeless for similar reasons and therefore a single solution is the answer. Every homeless person shares the basic needs of affordable housing, adequate incomes and attainable healthcare. But a wide range of other unmet needs cause some people to become or remain homeless which include drug treatment, employment training, transportation, childcare and mental health services (Center 8.)
Homelessness is all our responsibility. Waking every morning in a warm bed in a secure house for some Australians is only a dream. Every day more and more people are becoming or are at risk of becoming homeless as the global economy crumbles away and monetary resources become harder to find. What is homelessness: the Australian Government Department of Health (2005) defines homelessness as a person who is without a conventional home. Homeless Australians have become disconnected from family and friend and has few, if any resource and very little prospect of achieving financial independence without Government assistant. This assessment will talk about Australia’s history with homelessness, it will go onto to talk about the Government’s role in preventing homelessness and the AASW view on the current social problem. An example of how human service delivery organisation are impacted by current political and society’s view. Homelessness has a face and now more than ever society must ensure that the Government fulfils promise made to all of its citizens.
The purpose of this paper is to present an outline for a paper on the critical analysis of the literature on the culture and space of homeless individuals to reveal the
While it is true that housing is correlated with positive outcomes in the homeless population, it does not account for supportive services that this population may also need. Housing is one plan of action for preventing homelessness, but it does not solve the problem. Persisting health problems may prevent an individual from ever reaching housing stability for them a permanent house would not be beneficial if the problem is their health. Housing without supportive services cannot end homelessness.3,4 Providing housing for the homeless is a measure taken after people have experienced the trauma of losing their home. Intervention efforts should be concentrated on preventing the loss of homes, and safety that can ultimately influence a person 's health
Homelessness is descriptive condition of someone without a permanent or regular dwelling. Homeless people most often are not in a position to acquire as well as maintain a safe, regular, and adequate housing. Being that one of the most fundamental human needs is shelter, it is important and health for every human to at least acquire one. Unfortunately, it is becoming rather a difficulty to own a home in the current century given the economic recessions frequently occurring in almost globally. Although the legal definitions for homelessness may vary from country to country, the central idea includes people whose primary nighttime residence could be a homeless shelter, a domestic violence shelter, cardboard boxes or ad hoc housing circumstances. They could also be people who take shelter at night in a private or public place that is not primarily designed or suitable for use as a regular sleeping housing for humans.
Hopper, Kim. “Housing the Homeless.” Social Policy 28.3 (1998): 64+. Academic OneFile. Web. 29 Oct. 2013.
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, July 1943. 370-396. Print. 8 Feb. 2014.