Essay On Family Homelessness

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Family Resiliency, Homelessness, and Mental Health Homeless families often present with complex health concerns and social situations that overwhelm the family unit and the ability to function. Homelessness is an over-arching term fraught with substance abuse, poverty, domestic abuse, and mental health issues. These issues reach across the biopsychosocial continuum of health and social issues and contribute to a greater rate of familial clientele with mental health issues. The homeless are often seen living on the fringe of society as vulnerable, without strong social support, or healthcare options. Many associated risk factors are identified with homelessness and may include: family conflict or breakdown, emotional and domestic abuse, substance disorders, refugee status, military background, health defiance, mental health disorders, and poverty. Vostanis, Grattan, and Cumella (1998) sentinel longitudinal …show more content…
These two database searches offered a rich array of articles either from a mental health viewpoint or family as a unit of care viewpoint. Key words searched in the database include: (a) family resiliency and homelessness, (b) homelessness AND families with children AND mental health, (c) family resiliency AND homelessness AND mental health, (d) family homelessness and mental health, (e) homeless shelter AND mental health, (f) family homelessness, (g) family homelessness AND resiliency, and (h) resilient families in homelessness and mental health (see Appendix A). The search restrictions were set to English language only, full text articles, and articles after December 31, 2006. Literature searches producing high number of articles were further refined using the combination of key words aforementioned. The result of the search strategy was to obtain key publications with specific terms related to family resiliency in homelessness and mental

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