In a single night, 564,708 people across America experience homelessness. Of this number, 194,716 are members of a family. Homelessness in America in the last five decades has become a problem for hundreds of major cities. People are lining the streets, begging for food, asking for money, and suffering through appalling living conditions. It wasn’t until recently that the street dwellers of New York, Austin, Atlanta and other leading metropolises were finally noticed and seem. With the help of federal government officials, these cities have begun implementing programs to end homelessness. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 was the first significant federal response and is a United States federal law that provides federal money
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Without proper medical care, hundreds of people are left to die on the streets due to substance abuse, Hepatitis C, congestive heart failure(CHF), bipolar disorder, and undiagnosed mental problems. Austin, Tx is one of the first major cities to launch a program to assist homeless people in getting proper medical care, known as the Medical Access Program (MAP). This program is devised to cover primary care, prescriptions, specialty care, and hospital care to low-income and homeless people. Mike Sasser, a Community Health Paramedic of Austin, plays a vital part in ensuring the success of this program. Sasser spends his days working with the Homeless Outreach Street Team, driving around Austin to communicate and meet with homeless people. When asked how medical issues affect homeless people, Sasser expressed that “ problems such congestive heart failure(CHF) are hard because that person can't take food and medication properly, and are therefore in and out of the hospital due to retaining fluid. It becomes a cycle that is expensive for society.” Similar to MAP, the Robert Wood Johnson Health Care for the Homeless grant has allowed 4 major cities (San Francisco, Albuquerque, Cleveland and Milwaukee) the opportunity to fund medical centers for homeless people. These medical centers target general health problems, emergency situations, and mental health occurrences. Many medical centers will have officials like Mike Sasser perform VI-SPDAT coordinated assessments. These assessments test the vulnerability of homeless patients to determine further action beyond physical examinations to begin proper medical treatment for medical conditions and the process to find housing to continue treatments as needed. These programs have been increasingly success, especially in equipping “medical care to 21,504 veterans, equal to 45 % of the 47,725 US veterans
Without proper medical care, hundreds of people are left to die on the streets due to substance abuse, Hepatitis C, congestive heart failure(CHF), bipolar disorder, and undiagnosed mental problems. Austin, Tx is one of the first major cities to launch a program to assist homeless people in getting proper medical care, known as the Medical Access Program (MAP). This program is devised to cover primary care, prescriptions, specialty care, and hospital care to low-income and homeless people. Mike Sasser, a Community Health Paramedic of Austin, plays a vital part in ensuring the success of this program. Sasser spends his days working with the Homeless Outreach Street Team, driving around Austin to communicate and meet with homeless people. When asked how medical issues affect homeless people, Sasser expressed that “ problems such congestive heart failure(CHF) are hard because that person can't take food and medication properly, and are therefore in and out of the hospital due to retaining fluid. It becomes a cycle that is expensive for society.” Similar to MAP, the Robert Wood Johnson Health Care for the Homeless grant has allowed 4 major cities (San Francisco, Albuquerque, Cleveland and Milwaukee) the opportunity to fund medical centers for homeless people. These medical centers target general health problems, emergency situations, and mental health occurrences. Many medical centers will have officials like Mike Sasser perform VI-SPDAT coordinated assessments. These assessments test the vulnerability of homeless patients to determine further action beyond physical examinations to begin proper medical treatment for medical conditions and the process to find housing to continue treatments as needed. These programs have been increasingly success, especially in equipping “medical care to 21,504 veterans, equal to 45 % of the 47,725 US veterans