Homelessness and Macro Interventions

Author(s):  
Eva M. Moya ◽  
Amy Joyce-Ponder ◽  
Jacquelin I. Cordero ◽  
Silvia M. Chávez-Baray ◽  
Margie Rodriguez LeSage

The emergence of social work and macro practice is often associated with the eradication of poverty and prevention of homelessness through the efforts of 19th century settlement houses. Structural violence and social determinants of homelessness are often grounded in unequal social, political, and economic conditions. Health and mental health were affected by the lack of stable housing, causing and increasing the complexity of health and human service needs and services. Furthermore, due to inequities, some populations are inadvertently more likely to face chronic homelessness, which can be mitigated through the role community-engagement and macro practice interventions.

1999 ◽  
Vol 174 (4) ◽  
pp. 346-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony F. Lehman ◽  
Lisa Dixon ◽  
Jeffrey S. Hoch ◽  
Bruce Deforge ◽  
Eimer Kernan ◽  
...  

BackgroundHomelessness is a major public health problem among persons with severe mental illness (SMI). Cost-effective programmes that address this problem are needed.AimsTo evaluate the cost-effectiveness of an assertive community treatment (ACT) programme for these persons in Baltimore, Maryland.MethodsA total of 152 homeless persons with SMI were randomly allocated to either ACT or usual services. Direct treatment costs and effectiveness, represented by days of stable housing, were assessed.ResultsCompared with usual care, ACT costs were significantly lower for mental health in-patient days and mental health emergency room care, and significantly higher for mental health out-patient visits and treatment for substance misuse. ACT patients spent 31% more days in stable housing than those receiving usual care. ACT and usual services incurred $242 and $415 respectively in direct treatment costs per day of stable housing, an efficiency ratio of 0. 58 in favour of ACT. Patterns of care and costs varied according to race.ConclusionACT provides a cost-effective approach to reducing homelessness among persons with severe and persistent mental illnesses.


2011 ◽  
Vol 139 (suppl. 1) ◽  
pp. 6-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milutin Nenadovic

Discordances of harmonic mental functioning are as old as the human kind. Psychopathological behaviour of an individual in the past was not treated as an illness. That means that psychopathology was not considered an illness. In all past civilizations discordance of mental harmony of an individual is interpreted from the physiological aspect. Psychopathologic expression was not considered an illness, so social attitudes about psychiatric patients in the past were non-medical and generally speaking inhuman. Hospitals did not follow development of medicine for admission of psychiatric patients in past civilizations, not even in the antique era. According to historic sources, the first hospital that was meant for mental patients only was established in the 15th century, 1409 in Valencia (Spain). Therefore mental patients were isolated in a special institution-hospital, and social community rejected them. Only in the new era psychopathological behavior begins to be treated as an illness. Therefore during the 19th century psychiatry is developed as a special branch of medicine, and mental disorder is more and more seen according to the principals of interpretation of physical illnesses. By the middle of the 19th century psychiatric hospitals are humanized, and patients are being less physically restricted. Deinstitutialisation in protection of mental health is the heritage of reforms from the beginning of the 19th century which regarded the prevention of mental health protection. It was necessary to develop institutions of the prevention of protection in the community which would primarily have social support and characteristics.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Aboobacker Rameez

It is generally believed that sociology originated in Europe in the 19th century and the paternity of the discipline is commonly attributed to the French sociologist August Comte. However, reflections of a sociological nature were observed and found in the work of 14th century North African historian and philosopher Ibn Khaldun. However, such contribution of Ibn Khaldun is little acknowledged by European scholars in their works. Therefore, this paper attempts to examine how Eurocentrism is embedded in the writing of the European scholars and unpacks the contribution of Ibn Khaldun in the growth of Sociology. In the first part of essay, I argue that the perspective of European scholars are mainly Eurocentric and parochial in their accounts on culture, language and other aspects of non-European society. In the second part of the essay, I argue Ibn Khaldun’s contribution to the field of sociology is largely ignored, though his contributions dealt with the society and human character, political organization and government, differences between rural and urban populations, kinship, social solidarity, and the interplay between economic conditions and social organizations. Nevertheless, I argue that though Ibn Khaldun’s ideas have hugely impressed some of European thinkers in the 19th century prompting them to regard him as the progenitor of sociology, question remains as to how his ideas and theories have been appropriated by contemporary social scientists in their works.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 670-681 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Diminic ◽  
E. Hielscher ◽  
M. G. Harris ◽  
Y. Y. Lee ◽  
J. Kealton ◽  
...  

AbstractAimsPlanning mental health carer services requires information about the number of carers, their characteristics, service use and unmet support needs. Available Australian estimates vary widely due to different definitions of mental illness and the types of carers included. This study aimed to provide a detailed profile of Australian mental health carers using a nationally representative household survey.MethodsThe number of mental health carers, characteristics of carers and their care recipients, caring hours and tasks provided, service use and unmet service needs were derived from the national 2012 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers. Co-resident carers of adults with a mental illness were compared with those caring for people with physical health and other cognitive/behavioural conditions (e.g., autism, intellectual disability, dementia) on measures of service use, service needs and aspects of their caring role.ResultsIn 2012, there were 225 421 co-resident carers of adults with mental illness in Australia, representing 1.0% of the population, and an estimated further 103 813 mental health carers not living with their care recipient. The majority of co-resident carers supported one person with mental illness, usually their partner or adult child. Mental health carers were more likely than physical health carers to provide emotional support (68.1%v.19.7% of carers) and less likely to assist with practical tasks (64.1%v.86.6%) and activities of daily living (31.9%v.48.9%). Of co-resident mental health carers, 22.5% or 50 828 people were confirmed primary carers – the person providing the most support to their care recipient. Many primary mental health carers (37.8%) provided more than 40 h of care per week. Only 23.8% of primary mental health carers received government income support for carers and only 34.4% received formal service assistance in their caring role, while 49.0% wanted more support. Significantly more primary mental health than primary physical health carers were dissatisfied with received services (20.0%v.3.2%), and 35.0% did not know what services were available to them.ConclusionsResults reveal a sizable number of mental health carers with unmet needs in the Australian community, particularly with respect to financial assistance and respite care, and that these carers are poorly informed about available supports. The prominence of emotional support and their greater dissatisfaction with services indicate a need to better tailor carer services. If implemented carefully, recent Australian reforms including the Carer Gateway and National Disability Insurance Scheme hold promise for improving mental health carer supports.


Author(s):  
Mike Slade ◽  
Michele Tansella ◽  
Graham Thornicroft

In this chapter we have emphasized that it is of central importance when planning mental health service for populations, to do so on the basis of (i) the occurrence of mental disorders in that particular population, (ii) the impairments caused by these disorders that require interventions, (iii) the nature and level of needs among these people, (iv) identifying from among these needs those which are unmet, and then (v) prioritizing new service development on the basis of these unmet needs, including a range of social supports and services (such as housing or employment opportunities, outside the mental health system), the requirements for enhanced physical/general health care, as well as improvements in the provision of specific mental health services. For all of these sectors there is an increasingly clear call from service user/consumer groups for involvement in these priority-setting planning exercises. At the level of individuals with mental illness, there is a similar trend to increasingly involve service users/consumers in assessing needs, with emerging evidence that this produces a more comprehensive basis for care planning. Indeed in the last decade there has been an important conceptual shift away from the view that professionals defined ‘needs’ while consumers stated ‘demands’, to a better appreciation of the many advantages to be gained from identifying, as far as possible, unmet needs in a joint and consensual way as a basis for action.


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