Essay On Mental Illness, Substance Abuse And Homelessness

Mental Illness, Substance Abuse and Homelessness A real challenge facing any medical professional in seeking to help the homeless population is how to provide quality care to those suffering from mental illness and/or substance abuse. Providing continual, follow up care is another layer to the challenge. When planning exactly how to help homeless with mental illness and/or substance abuse disorders, CCFD would do well to consider the words of An-Pyng Sun in her 2012 National Association of Social Workers article entitled “Helping Homeless Individuals with Co-occurring Disorders: The Four Components.” Dr. Sun wrote her recommendations from the perspective as a social worker. In reality, this is exactly what a person facing homelessness needs. The first of her recommendations is to work hard at helping the homeless person adapt from hospitalization, extended therapy, or institutionalization back into a stable environment. …show more content…
At around the 4th day initial response resources are being depleted and hospitals are at or over their capacity. It is as this point a typical secondary surge begins. This consists of those with chronic illnesses, those now able to move about and report for medical care, persons suffering from shock, and those injured as they respond and/or become dehydrated or exhausted. Of these, vulnerable populations, such as the homeless, will tend to make their way to healthcare facilities for already mentioned reasons. This surge, along with limited supply/re-supply capabilities will overwhelm the treatment facilities and provide for a real medical emergency. Runkle concludes that more effort should be made pre-disaster to utilize primary care providers, in any form, to prepare vulnerable populations for disasters. In his view, a true “medical care needs assessment” must take place to limit surge capacity breakdown at time of disaster (Runkle,