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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Homelessness & Public Health Care System; Southern California, USA

“Great physicians and nurses, skilled, caring and unparalleled in their training, intervened in my life and probably saved it. I was lucky but other Americans are not. It is time to speak again and stand again for the ideal that in the richest nation ever on this planet, it is wrong for 41 million Americans, most of them in working families, to worry at night and wake up in the morning without the basic protection of health insurance.” -Senator John Kerry

­First Morning in America, I went Health care centre called “LOMA LINDA DERMATOLOGY MEDICAL GROUP” with my sister and friend & Sister Ms. Samantha, They have amazing infrastructures well constructed beautiful buildings with lawn, very lovable, thoughtful and gentle words by receptionist to collect the arrear medical bills. Very young and beautiful skin specialist came and asks what you like to do today? Without papers, case history file, nothing with her but within three minutes treatment is got over with high tech machines’.

I will try to explore the some ideas and observation made by me about the homelessness and health care system available in Southern California, How we are describing the Development through financial growth?, Infrastructure? Or Quality of Life? Such kind of questions are always in my mind even now?

There is no health insurance for all, those who are all having permanent job they can able to avail the medical care from hospitals for that also patient contribution must due to financial recession there is no job security for people . (Where the proportion of the population of the county that is poor (incomes less than $15,000 per year) is high, homelessness is relatively high.) Based on my observation I would like highlight some statistical report about homelessness in USA and how it is affecting the Children and young population.

Which states have the highest rates of homelessness?
Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington State, and Washington, D.C. have the highest rates of homelessness, according to a study released in 2007 by The National Alliance to End Homelessness.

Overall

USA

CA

Homelessness

671,859

159,732

Homelessness Person per 10,000

22

44

Source: National Alliance to End Homelessness: http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/2797

Children and Homelessness

One out of 50—or about 1.5 million—American children are homeless each year, according to a 2009 study by the National Center on Family Homelessness.

California's RANKINGS

Extent of child homelessness

48

Child well-being

15

Risk for child homelessness

28

State policy and planning

Inadequate

Overall rank

40

*States ranked 1-50 1=best, 50=worst

Source: The National Center on Family Homelessness http://www.homelesschildrenamerica.org/state_reports.php?state=CA

People who are homeless frequently report health problems.

  • 38% report alcohol use problems
  • 26% report other drug use problems
  • 39% report some form of mental health problems (20-25% meet criteria for serious mental illness)
  • 66% report either substance use and/or mental health problems
  • 3% report having HIV/AIDS
  • 26% report acute health problems other than HIV/AIDS such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, or sexually transmitted diseases
  • 46% report chronic health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or cancer

What are the greatest causes of homelessness?

For persons in families, the three most commonly cited causes, according to a 2008 U.S. Conference of Mayors study (pdf) are:

  • Lack of affordable housing
  • Poverty
  • Unemployment

For singles, the three most commonly cited causes of homelessness are:

  • Substance abuse
  • Lack of affordable housing
  • Mental illness

Are veterans more likely than other populations to be homeless?

Yes. About 40% of homeless men are veterans, although veterans comprise only 34 percent of the general adult male population, according to research on veterans by the National Coalition for Homeless. On any given night, 200,000 veterans are homeless.

Demographics of homeless people?

Racial and ethnic minorities, particularly African-Americans, are overrepresented.

  • 39% are non-Hispanic whites (compared to 76% of the general population)
  • 42% are African-Americans (compared to 11% of the general population)
  • 13% are Hispanic (compared to 9% of the general population)
  • 4% are Native-American (compared to 1% of the general population)
  • 2% were Asian

Note: The above figures are based on a 2006 study (pdf) by the US Conference of Mayors.

Homelessness continues to be a largely urban phenomenon.

  • 71% are in central cities
  • 21% are in suburbs
  • 9% are in rural areas

Note: The above figures are based on 1996 data from Samhsha's National Mental Health Information Center.

What legislation exists that addresses homelessness?

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act was the first—and remains the only—major federal legislative response to homelessness. President Ronald Reagan signed the act into law in 1987.

The Act, which has undergone many changes since its inception, has resulted in several programs that have helped hundreds of thousands of Americans regain stability through emergency shelter, transitional housing, job training, primary health care, education, and some permanent housing. However, critics claim the greatest weakness of the Act is that it responds to the symptoms of homelessness more than its causes.

How do you measure homelessness?

Measuring homelessness is difficult because of the fluidity of the homeless population. Part of the difficulty stems from varying methodologies used to measure homelessness. Some researchers attempt to count all the people who are literally homeless on a given day or during a given week, called a "point-in-time" count. Critics say this method is likely to overestimate the number of chronically homeless and underestimate the number of people who experience temporary homelessness.

A second method of counting homeless people examines the number of people who are homeless over a given period of time, also called a "period prevalence" count. Critics of this method point to the difficulty of standardizing measurements. Other affecting factors in measuring homeless rates include the duration of counting and time of year of counting.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has recently instituted standardized reporting requirements to include both those inside the system (in shelters), and those outside (unsheltered) using a point-in-time count.

State and federal programs generally provide services to children, pregnant women, adults with children, and the elderly or disabled up to specified poverty levels. County programs generally provide services to adults without children and to those who do not qualify for state or federal programs up to specified income limits.

Where is Rights of the People? Where is Inclusion? What is Development? Where is equity and Equality? How we are going to ensure these things and rights to the needy.

Rise some of the questions frequently ask ourselves and move forward with your own community for Action. Try to eradicate the ‘I’ feelings from individuals, bring up the ‘We/Us’ feeling among all category of people, then we can able to develop the inclusion in everything and every where such as inclusion in finance, health, Education and so on…

We need to guarantee equal rights and civil rights and say that, here in America, workers have the right to organize - women have the right to choose - and justice belongs to everyone regardless of race or gender or sexual orientation.” --Senator John Kerry

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