Community Nursing: Homeless Population, Disaster in the Community
- The major health problems among the various homeless aggregates in my community
The U.S. has experienced homelessness issues for decades as affected communities struggle to find solutions. Polcin (2015) notes that the U.S. reported over 600,000 homeless people on any given night in 2013. Due to the increased funding for homeless populations in the country, the number of homeless people has decreased over time. For instance, the overall homelessness decreased by 3.7 percent between 2012 and 2013 (Polcin, 2015). The U.S. has focused on channeling funds to support homeless programs, such as permanent housing, emergency shelters, and Veterans Administration programs. Despite these efforts, homeless people face health problems that require urgent intervention measures before addressing the underlying socio-economic issues contributing to homelessness.
Homelessness is a crucial driver of poor health among homeless populations. According to Stafford and Wood (2017), homeless populations fail to seek early interventions for their health problems, and any injury or illness affecting them may be reported at an advanced stage. As a consequence, homeless people have presented significant health problems as compared with people living comfortably in their houses. Stafford and Wood (2017) report that homeless people have a shorter life expectancy and higher morbidity. Also, homeless people are less likely to seek preventive or primary healthcare services. As a result, the diagnosis of diseases is made at a later stage, which leads to poor control of manageable conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension. Polcin (2015) also reports other health issues that homeless people encounter, and these include HIV risk, increased abuse of drugs, and higher rates of mental health problems. Further, mortality rates among homeless populations are three times higher when compared with people living in their houses (Polcin, 2015). The homeless can also get injured from accidents and violence, and the injuries may not heal due to bad hygiene as a result of a lack of constant bathing and bandages to keep a clean wound. As a consequence, minor injuries may lead to life-threatening infections.
- Mention and discuss three factors that contribute to homelessness and how it affects your community
The discussions and descriptions of homelessness have pointed out two different concepts. The first concept highlights two factors that contribute to homelessness: inadequate and scarce support services and income insufficient to meet basic needs. The former results from failures by the state to provide employment, support child welfare, or care of mental conditions and other disabilities. The latter is the failure by the state to maintain uniform income across households. The two factors that contribute to homelessness show systems of the state that are ineffective, leading to inadequate funding and failure to support specific groups with special needs.
The second concept points to a third factor contributing to homelessness, shortages of affordable housing. States may face the decline of the supply of decent housing, and this presents more people at the risk of becoming homeless. As the housing market becomes tighter, the amount of personal and economic resources people need to acquire a house increases. As a result, people with lower incomes may fail to secure a house, thus becoming homeless.
The three factors that contribute to homelessness have a devastating impact on the low income earners in the community. The people incapacitated to cope with life demands, such as the ones with various disabilities, become homeless due to scarce support services, including failure to provide them with income sources. Also, failure by the state to provide a sufficient supply of affordable housing affects low-income earners in the communities rendering them homeless. Therefore, shortages of affordable housing and scarce support services for the vulnerable are two underlying factors that expose low-income earners at risk of becoming homeless.
- Mention and discuss the stages of disaster management
A disaster management model assists emergency managers in preparing and responding to a disaster. It is a four-stage disaster management plan, starting with the mitigation or prevention stage. Saunders (2015) explains that the prevention stage requires emergency managers to establish potential disaster risks and develop risk maps. Citizens can then be educated on actions to employ in preparing for any possible disaster. Emergency managers would then develop a plan to meet identified potential disasters by creating resource maps. The second stage, preparedness, and planning stage, also involves measures that are taken prior to an impending disaster. The stage focusses on establishing how a disaster might affect the community and how training, outreach, and education can build capacity for the people to recover. Emergency managers use the phase to engage pre-disaster strategic planners and the business community.
The third and the fourth stages of disaster management, response, and recovery are undertaken when a disaster befalls a community. The response phase focusses on immediate threats, including providing humanitarian needs, saving lives, damage evaluation, and clean up. The recovery stage entails the restoration of the impact of the disaster by returning the affected community to normalcy. The phase is undertaken when the affected community has achieved social, economic, and physical stability.
- Discuss the impact of disasters on a community
Disasters pose the danger of physical injury or death to people. People may also lose their possessions, and this poses a risk for physical and emotional health problems. Disasters cause widespread deaths and epidemics, as well as disruption of fundamental services, such as the supply of food and clean water, which are essential for better healthcare (Ray, Ghimire, & BC, 2019). Disasters contribute to short and long-term healthcare consequences. Ray et al. (2019) note that reported disasters increased morbidity and mortality rates due to injuries, exposure to toxic substances, and increased mental health problems. Also, disasters contribute to deleterious impacts on education, nutrition, income generation, and health. As a consequence, the recovery of physical assets and the health of victims is jeopardized. Notably, distress and other mental problems are the major impacts of disasters. The severity of exposure determines the magnitude of mental problems that the affected may face in the future. People at higher risks of developing mental problems are directly affected. The people directly injured or their lives threatened may have severe mental health problems in the future. Other people who are indirectly exposed to disasters are at a lower risk of developing mental problems. Women, children, girls, and adults aged between 40 and 60 years are also more at risk of becoming distressed.
References
Polcin, D. L. (2016). Co-occurring substance abuse and mental health problems among homeless persons: Suggestions for research and practice. Journal of Social Distress and Homelessness, 25 (1), 1-10.
Ray, K., Ghimire, J., & BC. (April 2019). Effects of disaster on primary health care in low-income countries. J Nepal Health Res Counc, 17 (42), 1- 8 doi: 10.33314/jnhrc.1688.
Stafford, A. & Wood, L. (December 8, 2017). Tackling health disparities for people who are homeless? Start with social determinants. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 14 (12), 1535 doi: 10.3390/ijerph14121535.