Researchers began to educate the public about psychology and homelessness. Psychology isn't just about mental disease; it's also about learned behaviors and about unavoidable consequences of tragic events, such it is the reality of many homeless veterans. Many causes can lead to homelessness. A psychological view of homelessness shows there is a mental factor involved in becoming homeless and also in the possibility of overcoming this marginalized condition.
While approximately 6 percent of the American population is severely mentally ill, the National Coalition for the Homeless estimates that 20 to 25 percent of the single adult homeless population is sick and untreated. A study done by researchers at Ohio State University, published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing in 1999, also showed that more than half of all homeless children battled depression.
A homeless person suffers from an impaired personality as a result of the circumstances leading to their condition. Becoming homeless is often a process that takes years of untreated mental disorders, poor work history and low financial status. The connection between homelessness and drug addiction has been explored. People who are homeless and suffer from mental disorders often turn to drug abuse. We learn now that drug use is both caused by and the cause of homelessness. This means that for many homeless taking drugs is a way of "treating" their illness; they do so because they cannot obtain legitimate treatment. Untreated addiction can result in worsening mental disorders an increased inability to find steady work and become re-established. This is a vicious circle that many homeless people experiment.
Diseases such as AIDS, pneumonia and tuberculosis frequently present in this population ad to more challenges to the problem. Emotional conditions such as depression need to be considered in this analysis. Homeless people frequently suffer from mental disorders such as depression. Studies have shown that due to the stresses involved in depression and other mental disorders, those who suffer from such disorders are more likely to experience homelessness at some point in their lives than those who do not. A study done by California's mental health system, found that 15 percent of people suffering from mental illness would become homeless at least once in the course of one year, the National Coalition for the Homeless reports. From the perspective of government now, the idea isn't just to have programs available, but to have well-designed programs based on solid research. In short, to treat the causes and effects of homelessness, psychological research is significant.
A 1999 article in the New York Times discussed the obstacles that many homeless people with mental illness face.
It is often difficult to diagnose bipolar disorder--an illness otherwise known as manic depression that causes extreme mood swings, including crippling depression--because, often, by the time a homeless patient is seen for treatment, the illness is in the latter stages. The further along bipolar disorder gets, the more it can mimic schizophrenia.
The lack of employment and health insurance often makes it impossible for a homeless patient to undergo continuous treatment once a diagnosis is made.
The cost of medication and counseling cannot be sustained.
Because many people with mental illness have cut ties with friends and family, peer support is often nonexistent, there is no "accountability" to help patients get to counseling or take their medication properly. Also this can be the result of the homeless person shutting their loved ones out, or friends and family backing away because it is too much stress to bear.
Other difficulties or episodal mood symptoms specific of bipolar or schizoaffective disorders: Poor judgment, No awareness of the need of psychological treatment, Agitation, Apathy, Agoraphobia, Mistrust of authority, Chronic demoralization, Elevated mood –aggressiveness or other, Pressured speech, Anhedonia or depressed mood, Paranoid delusions, Disorganized thought process, Auditory and visual hallucinations.
INDICATORS OF Homelessness RECOVERY ARE:
· Reduce hospitalization
· Decrease symptoms
· Increase employment
· Improve social relationships
· Life satisfaction
· Cost effective solutions
Thus, the more that is known about a psychological view of homelessness, more chances of reducing or rehabilitating homeless individuals. If psychological help is made easily available or even required for certain programs, more homeless may get the treatment needed to mentally prepare them for a better life.
Homeless Access to Recovery through Treatment Act (HART). One proposal that is designed specifically to help mentally ill and drug-addicted homeless men and women is the Homeless Access to Recovery through Treatment Act (HART), which was introduced in November 2007 and referred to the Subcommittee on Health. The item was never passed, but continues to be modified in the hope that it can be re-introduced in the future. The goal of HART is "ensure homeless people with addictions and mental illness receive the necessary treatment and assistance to help them recover and end their homeless conditions."
'While addictive and mental disorders appeared to play little or no role in causing homelessness in more than one-half of 1,437 single homeless adults [studied in Santa Clara County, California, both of these problems increased significantly after people lost their residence. The increase in addictive and psychiatric problems following homelessness suggests that interventions that prevent loss of housing will be more effective and less costly than interventions that provide economic and social assistance after the loss of shelter," Marilyn Winkleby, a senior research scientist at the Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention. Role of addictive and mental disorders in causing homelessness; Data regarding interventions that prevent the loss of housing.
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