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Effects of homelessness
Impact of homelessness on mental illness paper
WHY HOMELESS AFFECT MENTAL HEALTH essay
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Mental illness is a prevalent issue in our country today. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration estimated that 20-25% of our nations homeless suffer from mental illness (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2009). Many people with mental illness end up in prison without proper care and supportive housing (NAMI, 2011). Without proper care, people with severe mental illness cannot function as productive members of society (HCH Clinician’s Network, 2000). Proper housing, care, and professionals to guide them, the quality of life for people with severe mental illness is poor. In this paper, I will review and analyze three journal studies regarding policies about homelessness, and guardianship by public administrators for people with severe mental illness.
Alvin Mushkatel, Subhrajit Guhathakurta, Jackie Thompson, Kathy Thomas, and Michael Franczak (2009) explored the quality of life of people who have serious mental illness, who where homeless within the metropolitan Phoenix area. In the experiment, two programs that were looked at were Supportive Housing (SL) and the Supervised Assisted Living (SIL) programs (Mushkatel, Guhathakurta, Thompson, Thomas, & Franczak, 2009). The study looked at different factors “such as neighborhood racial composition, incomes, housing tenure and concentrations of other subsidized housing” (Mushkatel, Guhathakurta, Thompson, Thomas, & Franczak, 2009, para. 1) and how it impacted the lives of people with severe mental illness. In 1997, “deinstitutionalization had resulted in 2.2 million severely mentally ill patients without supportive psychiatric services” (Mushkatel, Guhathakurta, Thompson, Thomas, & Franczak, 2009, para 3) and many people with serious mental illness became hom...
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... (2003). When the state takes over a life: The public guardian as pubic administrator. Public Administration Review, 63(4), 396-404. Retrieved October 17, 2011, from Research Library. (Document ID: 370511071).
Thomas, A.R.. (1998). Ronald Reagan and the commitment of the mentally ill: Capital, interest groups, and the eclipse of social policy, Electronic Journal of Sociology, ISSN: 1198 3655. Retrieved from http://www.sociology.org/content/vol003.004/thomas.html
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (1999). Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health. Retrieved from http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/pdfs/front.pdf
Harrison, Erica. "Homelessness Among the Seriously Mentally Ill: What We Can Do to Help." Clarityhumanservices.com. N.p., 5 Mar. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
Imagine a man on the streets, who society has forgotten. This man emits the smell of garbage; he has not bathed in months. This man sits quietly mumbling to himself. To the outer world he is just one of the many homeless, but little does society know that this man has a mental illness as well. Homelessness and mental illness are linked. These two happenings have similar beginnings. Homelessness is influenced by drug and alcohol disuse, being homeless at a young age, money problems, and trauma symptoms. Mental illness is caused by many of the same things, but it can also happen at birth. The effects that each entity has on a person are comparable. Rehabilitation is a necessary process if a victim of homelessness and or mental illness wants to rejoin society. Homelessness and mental illness have similar, if not the same causes, effects, and rehabilitations.
NAMI - The National Alliance on Mental Illness. (n.d.). NAMI. Retrieved February 24, 2014, from http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=by_illness&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=61191
"NAMI - The National Alliance on Mental Illness." NAMI. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014.
The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and of that over sixty percent of jail inmates reported having a mental health issue and 316,000 of them are severely mentally ill (Raphael & Stoll, 2013). Correctional facilities in the United States have become the primary mental health institutions today (Adams & Ferrandino, 2008). This imprisonment of the mentally ill in the United States has increased the incarceration rate and has left those individuals medically untreated and emotionally unstable while in jail and after being released. Better housing facilities, medical treatment and psychiatric counseling can be helpful in alleviating their illness as well as upon their release. This paper will explore the increasing incarceration rate of the mentally ill in the jails and prisons of the United States, the lack of medical services available to the mentally ill, the roles of the police, the correctional officers and the community and the revolving door phenomenon (Soderstrom, 2007). It will also review some of the existing and present policies that have been ineffective and present new policies that can be effective with the proper resources and training. The main objective of this paper is to illustrate that the criminalization of the mentally ill has become a public health problem and that our policy should focus more on rehabilitation rather than punishment.
Gulcur, Leyla, Padgett, Deborah K., and Tsemberis, Sam. (2006). “Housing First Services for People Who Are Homeless with Co-Occurring Serious Mental Illness and Substance Abuse.” Research on Social Work Practice, Vol 16 No. 1.
Kaut, K. P., & Dickinson, J.A. (2007). The mental health practitioner and psychopharmacology. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 29(3), 204–225.
Rosenfield, S., (1988). Homelessness and rehospitalization: The importance of housing for the chronic mentally ill. Journal of Community Psychology, 19(1). 60-69.
Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 28. (2000): 315-324. Web. The Web. The Web. 13 Apr 2011.
Poverty in mental health prevents patients from seeking out medical attention due to lack of insurance. “insurance coverage disparities make mental health care less accessible than other forms of health care” (Safran, 2011). Due to lack of insurance patients are not receiving adequate care, such as being evaluated, receiving the appropriate treatments, and not going to doctor follow up appointments to ensure proper care. Without receiving proper treatment, it can cause the patient condition to get worse and would not have a chance of a successful outcome. Also, poverty can cause additional stress and anxiety making the mental illness progress. “The stresses of living with someone who has a mental health problem may be particularly pronounced for families who live in resource poor areas where treatment options, accurate information, and social support may be limited.” (Bischoff, 2017). Lack of attention is another health disparities, due to lack of attention, there is limited funding sources to help mental health patients. Since there is a lack of funding these individuals are not getting the appropriate help that is needed. As well since mental health lacks attention and funding, there are limited mental health institutions, so people who need to be institutionalized may be required to be relocated to another city/state. We must try our best to provide all resources for our patients and
Those with mental illness would live in the community with an array of services and be able to be free from the constraints of confinement. In the early 1960’s the United States began an initiative to reduce and close publicly-operated mental hospitals. This became known as deinstitutionalization. The goal of deinstitutionalization was to allow people suffering from mental illness to live more independently in the community with treatments provided through community health programs. Unfortunately, the federal government did not provide sufficient ongoing funding for the programs to meet the growing demand. States reduced their budgets for mental hospitals but failed to increase funding for on-going community-based mental health programs. As a result of deinstitutionalization hundreds of thousands of mentally ill people were released into the community without the proper resources they needed for their treatment. (Harcourt,
States obtain many services that fall under mental health care, and that treat the mentally ill population. These range from acute and long-term hospital treatment, to supportive housing. Other effective services utilized include crisis intervention teams, case management, Assertive Community Treatment programs, clinic services, and access to psychiatric medications (Honberg at al. 6). These services support the growing population of people living in the...
Newman, S., & Goldman, H. (2008). Putting Housing First, Making Housing Last: Housing Policy for Persons With Severe Mental Illness. American Journal of Psychiatry, 165(10), 1242-1248.
Kahn, Ada P., and Jan Fawcett. The Encyclopedia of Mental Health. 2nd ed. New York: Facts On File, 2001.
What are the special challenges women, men, children and minorities who are homeless and suffering with a mental illness face?