Health Issues And Homelessness Essay

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The purpose of this essay is to discuss health problems and health services issues associated with homelessness. This essay will examine how homelessness can lead to serious health problems and how both physical and mental health problems can lead to homelessness. It will also discuss various barriers to accessing health services experienced by some homeless individuals and what government, Primary Care, voluntary organisations and healthcare professionals such as nurses are doing or can do to improve access to health services for homeless people.

Lund (2013) defines homelessness as a state of not having a home. Even when people have a roof over their head, they could still be classed as homeless person (Shelter, 2013). An individual may be classed as homeless if they are temporarily staying with friends or family member, staying in a hostel or night-shelter, living in an overcrowded conditions or poor living conditions that affects their health, living in a place where they do not have a legal right to stay such as squat, living in a place that they cannot afford to pay for without denying themselves of basic necessity, forced to live separately from their family or someone they would normally live with because their accommodation is not suitable or are at risk of violence or abuse in their home
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Sometimes this work is done in collaboration with Primary Care Trust (PCT). One of these organizations is Homeless Health Team based in Eastbourne. They provide an NHS funded nurse-led service in a community setting. They have employed a specialist nurse with a district nursing qualification and experience, a specialist health visitor and a community staff nurse to provide health assessment, treatment, health promotion, screening, sexual health advice, antenatal support and health visiting (John and Law,

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