The Main Causes of Homelessness - Term Paper Example

Introduction Homeless youth or unaccompanied youth are the people who are younger than eighteen years of age and are not under any parental, foster or institutional care. The main causes of homelessness in this particular category of the population can be divided into three sections that overlap each other which include family problems, economic problems and residential instability. Majority of the homeless youth are forced to leave their homes after they have gone through many years that are characterized by sexual abuse, relationships that are strained, addiction problems that are faced by a member of the family as well as abandonment by the parents. The conditions that are prevailing in the family are the key reasons that make these young people to leave their homes and most of the parents of these young people knew that they were leaving home yet did not take any action to stop it. Most of the homeless are physically abused on a regular basis through being forced into sexual activities by the people that they lived with before they left their households (Randall & Brown, 2001). Some of the young people find themselves homeless when their families go through financial crises ending up in a lack of affordable housing, scarce opportunities for employment, inadequate wages as well as lack of medical insurance or insufficient welfare benefits (Ambrosino, 2012). These youth together with their families find themselves homeless but as a result of shelters, transitional housing and child welfare policies, they might be separated from each other at one point or the other. Instability in the residential system also contributes to homelessness among youth since foster care is associated with homelessness at a young age and being homeless for an extended period of time. When the youth who live in the residential as well as institutional placements are discharged, they become homeless since there are past the age required to be taken into foster care but at the same time lack housing or income support. Homeless youth and their clinical needs The homeless youth have a health profile that is unique and intricate since the adolescents are at an important phase that is characterized by mental, physical and social development. The unstable nature of the development of these adolescents is additionally complicated for the ones that are unfortunate to become homeless. As soon as they become homeless, the life that they experience in the streets introduces them to the economy of the streets as well as the culture that is saturated with drugs use and abuse, involvement in gang activities and sex for survival. Simultaneously, the experience mental illness and the substance abuse a coupled with challenges in their development make the situations worse for these adolescents. This means that the youth who are on the streets present a broad range of physical and psychosocial complications to the people that are tasked with providing treatment to them. The lives that are lead by the homeless youth are characterized by high levels of personal and environmental stability that entails an uncertainty concerning basic needs like having access to food as well as a place to sleep. They may not be in a position to feel an internal sense of self-efficacy and safety and they may also face struggles with issues that are associated with shame while having a decreased understanding of the ways in which they can care for themselves. The homeless youth will also have a hard time dealing with trust, power and control even though they are required as young people to maintain a certain control over their own lives so that they can protect themselves from any more abuse. Most of the young people that are in the streets were able to survive abuse that was instigated by adults, which makes it difficult for them to trust adults. Many of them are also used to taking care of themselves and therefore do not care about accessing services since they have the fear that they might lose the control that they have over their own lives. This means while identifying intervention and assessment programs, the priorities of the homeless youth’s primary needs should be considered while ensuring the services that will be offered to wards intervention should be strength-based and address additional psychosocial needs (Lazzar, 2011). Guides for clinical intervention It is obvious any intervention that is aimed at assisting the homeless youth should be able to consider the various concerns that are associated with the individual adolescent. Crisis shelters avail multiple resources that include short-term accommodation, crisis intervention, outreach, individual and family counseling as well as case management. The shelters provide the services that are needed by the homeless youth and there are positive results that can be seen in the short-term. Regrettably, some of the evidence implies that some of the gains that are achieved by treatment that include reduced risky sexual behavior, better school performance as well as increased self-esteem are not consistent and are typically not maintained six months after the adolescents have been discharged. In spite of the risks that are associated with living in the streets, some of the groups of the youth that are homeless avoid social services and shelters deliberately which makes it important to build an understanding while providing for the basic needs that these youth need. This may involve taking time to know the youth better at a drop in centre for a free meal each day. To cater for the specific emotional needs of these youths in a manner that will be as effective as possible, psychotherapeutic interventions should entail considerations of discrimination, concerns developed because of culture, and sexual identity. Other vital issues that are supposed to be discussed by the homeless youth should include their performance at school, the relationship that they have with their parents, as well as improper family limits. Even though some of the homeless youths may never go back home, it is perceived that any contact with a family member whether positive or negative bring outs out a response that is positive from the adolescents that have ran away from home. This is an indication that treatment intervention that is directed at the adolescents that have run away from home should be able to include family therapy or elements of the family systems. Since there is a high prevalence of drugs and substance abuse that is linked with this population, most of the research is naturally directed at the treatment of substance abuse (Flowers, 2010). The Brief Motivational Intervention (BMI) can be used to address this issue in the homeless adolescents and youth. It has the same characteristics as motivational interviewing that is used with adults that starts with a check up, involves response presented by clinicians with information that is portrayed in a booklet that is colorful. When being given feedback, the youth are regularly informed about the frequency norms of the abuse of drugs or alcohol, the rates of use of a variety of substances are compared with normative behaviors are compared against a sample of the local homeless youth. Drug use has to be assessed within the social networks of the youth and the clinicians have to get training in motivational interviewing approaches as well as maintained non-confrontational attitudes when they are dealing with these youth. Personal motivation is a field that has to be discussed to assist in change and setting of goals giving advice on the options that are available for change only when the adolescent is comfortable with it. This goes a long way in the reduction of cases of these youth using illicit drugs but in spite of these interventions, the treatments that are directed at the homeless youth should be directed at developing a rapport, showing respect, availing simple support services and making sure that the parents are involved if possible (Love, 2008). Incorporating culture, ethnicity, and spirituality into intervention planning It is clear that the United States is a diverse multicultural society where the total number of people that are part of what can be considered minority groups make up almost a third of the total population of the whole nation. In the past, the treatment of substance abuse and also prevention programs have not focused exhaustively to cultural variables as the potential determinants of abuse of substances or as important elements for the programs that aim to prevent the abuse of substances. Race and ethnicity has also been left out as far as the scope of the interventions and treatment are concerned when dealing with the homeless youth (Castro, Alarcon & ez, 2002). An intervention program that aims to deal with the issue of homeless youth and helping them to should be able to exhibit cultural competence, which is the capacity that people have to increase the knowledge that they possess of the differences that can be seen in different cultures. It is also the ability to recognize cultural assumptions and perceptions and the willingness to make adjustments in the thinking and behavior so that the perceptions can be addressed. The culturally competent program is supposed to display empathy and an appreciation of the differences that exist in different cultures in the approach that it employs in the treatment, intervention and assessment of the homeless youth. The staff will need to be familiar with the first language of the clients that they are dealing with, appreciate the cultural distinction of the population that the client represents, as well as have backgrounds that are similar to those of the clients that they deal with. The intervention that is directed at the homeless youth is also supposed to reflect treatment methods that are characteristic of the specific cultural values and treatment needs of the adolescent while making sure that it includes the population of the adolescent in the developing of the policies and decisions that concern them. Barriers that exist to intervention When the youth for one reason or another are forced to become homeless, the individuals become the clients of a fragmented and under-resourced system of response where they mainly get the information of the interventions that they might be able to access through peer-to-peer interaction. The clinicians and caseworkers that are responsible for the intervention programs that deal with these youth take care of several cases at the same time. This makes the whole system that is supposed to deal with the homeless youth intricate and difficult to deal with and the distrust that the homeless youth have of the public further complicates the whole issue. The interventions strategies that are in place do not apply in all the cases that the clinicians and the social workers deal with daily. There is no one size fits all strategy that can be applied to all the cases that are met since all the cases that present themselves have a unique nature and needs to be dealt with in a unique way. Case example The homeless youth present challenges that are very unique to the existing assistance systems and most of the organizations are developed around the needs of the homeless adults and families and neglect the homeless youth. This means that they are at more risk for physical abuse that could be coupled with sexual abuse and exploitation, disabilities that are associated with the mind, dependency on substances as well as death. Taking the example of Sarah who is a sixteen-year-old girl who has lived with her mother and stepfather for after her mother and father separated when she was eleven years old. Her mother drinks daily and when she passes out from the drinking, the stepfather takes advantage of the situation to molest Sarah sexually. Attempts by Sarah to report these actions to her mother have been met by beatings since the mother does not believe her. When Sarah decides to run away from home it becomes a typical example of a case of a homeless youth. The streets orient her into abuse of drugs as well as sexual activities to survive. Intervention for this situation should involve rapid efforts for early intervention as well as family unification if possible but in this case, with the father who might be more responsible. In some of the occasions such as this one, all the person needs is a reconnection with their family and a case management that can be able to resolve the internal conflicts that caused the homelessness state. The intervention program for Sarah’s case will also entail an expansion of the long-term options that are consistent with the developmental needs that are characteristic of the young people since in this case, reconnecting Sarah with her mother and stepfather is not a solution since they are the source of the actual problem. She therefore needs a safe, alternate form of permanent accommodation, which will encompass the services, and case management that is required to deal with the needs of these youth. Since Sarah is past the age of foster care, there should be after-care support programs established since the young people that come out of foster care do not have the resources to enable them to make adjustments in a safe way in the community. Life skills that include training in particular jobs, providing higher education and case management approaches that are directed at needs are all important in assisting the adolescents that come out of foster care to transition to adulthood. References Ambrosino, R. (2012). Social work and social welfare (1st ed.). Australia: Brooks/Colex Cengage Learning. Castro, F., Alarcon, E., & ez,. (2002). Integrating cultural variables into drug abuse prevention and treatment with racial/ethnic minorities. Journal Of Drug Issues, 32(3), 783--810. Flowers, R. (2010). Street kids (1st ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co. Lazzar, S. (2011). Working with homeless youth: effective intervention and assessment. Insight: Rivier Academic Journal, 7(1). Love, J. (2008). Runaways and Street Kids: Risks and Interventions for Homeless Youth. Graduate Journal Of Counseling Psychology, 1(1), 7. Randall, G., & Brown, S. (2001). Trouble at home: family conflict, young people and homelessness. CRISIS. Read More