Homelessness In The United States

The United States is full of great things and even more great opportunities, but she also has her fair share of shortcomings. One of the main topics in the news today is the cost of healthcare in the United States, still spiraling out of control for many. There are a multitude of reasons for this, but one of the many is the issue of homelessness in the country. Whenever an economic recession occurs more people are added to the lists of the homeless due to job loss or foreclosure of property. Other risk factors are medical conditions, inadequate job skills, lack of education, domestic violence, addictions, and mental illness (Olivet, Paquette, Hanson, & Bassuk, 2010). As income diminishes, so do expenditures for healthcare. It does not take …show more content…
Members of this group include those older adults who are unemployed or earn such a low wage that housing is unaffordable for them. Some include migrant workers with no special skill to be employable. They must move wherever the work is, yet cannot afford even temporary shelter. Stay-at-home wives depend upon their husbands to provide for them. If that same husband dies or divorces, these women are without marketable job skills. Substance abusers and drug addicts also have members in the older generation that are homeless because of their habits. Military Veterans are often among the shelter seeking souls each night. Many of them could not readjust to civilian life after serving their country in war and either have fallen through the cracks of the Veterans Administration system or just refuse help altogether. There are also those who are victims of mental disease whose health benefits have been exhausted and have been turned down or they have been turned away from institutions. All of these situations filter down to the fact that these older adults have no place to go and no support system, and this makes for a big problem.
Elderly Homeless Health …show more content…
A great tool for this is the internet. Whatever locale the nurse is focused on, a search on the internet will quickly display community agencies that offer a variety of services to the homeless. Like any other information gathered from the internet, the nurse should investigate the listing before she offers it for referral. Some examples of internet listings are www.homelessshelterdirectory.org and www.shelterlistings.org. Both of those sites will direct someone to shelters, food banks, affordable housing, dental care, and treatment centers. Each homeless client that presents for assistance should be assessed for their greatest needs. The nurse should then perform their search based upon the needs assessment and make the appropriate referrals for that particular