Homelessness and Health in Adolescents - Management Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

Task:

Despite an abundance of resources, many of the world’s wealthiest nations have a large homeless population. People at all stages of development are affected by this problem, but adolescents who are homeless face a unique set of challenges. In this critical narrative study the authors examined the experiences of homeless adolescents with particular attention to the role of gender and public policy, health experiences and perceptions, and barriers to health care services. Six girls and 7 boys participated in semistructured dialogic interviews. Their stories revealed that living without a home had a substantial impact on their health and wellness. The findings from this study support the need for health care professionals to work in collaboration with homeless youth so that more effective care that is sensitive to their unique health needs can be provided. Keywords: adolescence; homelessness; health; critical theory; narrative Many of the world’s wealthiest nations have a large homeless population despite an abundance of natural and material resources. Because of the inherently transient nature of homelessness and few agreedon definitions, it is difficult to obtain an accurate picture of those who are living without a home (Panter-Brick, 2002). However, there is evidence that a significant proportion is made up of adolescents (City of Calgary, 2006). The leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, Jack Layton (2000), observed that the word homeless conjures up powerful images of people who have no roof under which to reside or individuals and families who live in “substandard” housing. How the term is defined is rooted in ideology (Ensign, 1998) and can influence who is researched and how the findings are interpreted. For the purposes of this study, homelessness includes individuals who live in the streets, are in the shelter system, or are continuously moving between temporary housing arrangements. Throughout this research the terms homeless, street-involved, and living on the streets are used interchangeably. The City of Toronto report commissioned by the Mayor’s Homelessness Action Task Force (1999) identified youth under the age of 18 as the fastest growing group of users of emergency hostels. Living without a home, and thus at the margins of society, is thought to create grim consequences for adolescents’ health, development, and overall well-being (Panter-Brick, 2002).

Background and Significance

In the past 10 years changes in the national economy, including socioeconomic restructuring in Canada, have had a substantial impact on adolescents nation-wide (Dematteo et al., 1999). The effects of this restructuring are demonstrated through cuts to social programs and supports as well as drastic reductions to welfare and unemployment insurance. These factors have led to an increase in the number of youth living in poverty. Although there are many other factors, including various forms of abuse and neglect, that play a role in the homelessness of adolescents (Martijn & Sharpe, 2005), such structural changes are also thought to contribute to the rise of street-involved youth in Canada. There is, however, little knowledge regarding how these social and political factors influence the experience of being without a home. The gender stratification of contemporary Western society can be characterized by a devaluing of the lives of girls and women (Neysmith, 1995). Consequently, gender is a powerful shaper of an individual’s experiences and can therefore influence how young women and men create different meanings out of similar Qualitative Health Research Volume 17 Number 9 November 2007 1232-1244 © 2007 Sage Publications 10.1177/1049732307307550 http://qhr.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com Authors’ Note: This study was funded by the Sigma Theta Tau International Honour Society–Iota Omicron Chapter © 2007 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. Downloaded from http://qhr.sagepub.com at DALHOUSIE UNIV on November 2, 2007 circumstances. Because of their lower position in the social hierarchy, it has been suggested that living without a home places adolescent women at a significant disadvantage (Ensign & Panke, 2002). Little research, however, has been conducted to confirm or refute this idea. In the absence of such knowledge, health care professionals are typically limited in their ability to provide care for this population.

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