Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Impairment_03

Poverty and Homelessness
Anyone without a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence or live in a temporary shelter
3 million people in the USA and 1.3 million children
Older youth are often runaways who have been abused in some way, are undernourished, and 1/3 have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder, like PTSD
The visible homeless
 On the street, shelters, or welfare hotels
The hidden homeless
 Those living in friends’ homes, or jail, foster homes, or detox
Many people who are employed still live below the poverty line Minimum wage versus a “living wage”
Children born into poverty are at risk for many co-occurring problems like developmental delay.
Adults in homeless situations often overlap with other problems like drug abuse, or have had experience with arrests, convictions, and the prison system.  Many are also veterans with physical or mental disabilities.  Others are fleeing abusive relationships and have nowhere to go.
Causes:
Lack of available and affordable housing
Elimination of entitlement programs
Family breakup
Domestic violence
Mental health system reforms
More minimum wage service type jobs
Elimination of skilled or semi-skilled jobs (unemployment and under-employment)
Tightened eligibility for government support services
Complicating factors include:
Illiteracy, victimization, loss of empowerment, inaccessible systems of help and layers of bureaucracy.
There is a tendency to feel alienation, loss of hope, low self-esteem, learned helplessness, depression, anxiety, unresolved loss or grief, chronic stress, poor health, lack of information, self-defeating behaviors.  Despair is the loss of hope.

Portrayals from the movies
 The Pursuit of Happy-ness, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xcZTtlGweQ
 The soloist, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_Spu2nO0jw
 With Honors, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxYDjcqc-xU
A true story about Liz Murray, Homeless to Harvard is a movie, Breaking Night is her book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtybvFW0ncY
 Liz also has a TedX talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmYbvByhSIs
TR efforts may be short-term at acute times of need, and also long term when services are found and accessed in a stable setting.
Empowerment is one of the main goals.
 By developing connections, decision making skills
 Regaining a sense of identity, increasing coping skills
 Develop life skills, educational opportunities, leisure lifestyle options
National resources: www.nationalhomeless.org
Hate crimes:  http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/hatecrimes/hatecrimes2010.pdf
War against the homeless:  http://www.stopcovertwar.com/homeless.html
On the edge: two young men just try to complete high school against the odds.  “Carry on” by ESPN
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=4371874

A thought:  Men are that they have JOY
http://mashable.com/2014/03/21/down-syndrome-dancers-happy/#:eyJzIjoiZiIsImkiOiJfcjhoY3BpdG4wang4NG9uYyJ9

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