{"id":671,"date":"2014-02-18T03:54:50","date_gmt":"2014-02-18T03:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coolsociology.net\/SOAN324WP\/?p=671"},"modified":"2014-07-13T05:36:01","modified_gmt":"2014-07-13T05:36:01","slug":"mental-illness-and-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mcguire-spickard.com\/SOAN324WP\/?p=671","title":{"rendered":"Mental Illness and Homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have heard the argument that homeless people are lazy, that they should just get a job and stop wasting their time and then begging for money. Clearly this is an irrational argument given the current rates of unemployment, the many types of people who are homeless and reasons why they are homeless. What many people are unaware of is that one of the types of homeless people are those with mental illnesses. \u00a0Jencks states in his book The Homeless<\/span> “Clinicians who examine the homeless today usually conclude that about a third have ‘severe’ mental disorders. Since the homeless were often hospitalized in the 1950s…, well over a third of today’s homeless might have been locked up at that time. Recreating the mental-health system of the 1950s would therefore cut today’s homeless population dramatically.” Reviewer\u00a0Reeve Vanneman asks readers where they stand on this issue. \u00a0After researching and hearing about Mental Health programs in the 1950s, I do not agree with the methods that were in place at the time. Many people were admitted into hospitals that did’nt need to be and were also given wrong diagnoses, and medications that increased their problems. I am a strong supporter of progressive interactive therapy programs for people who suffer from a variety of mental illnesses. \u00a0 My father is a Psychiatric RN and works with homeless people that are admitted in the hospital all the time. He has told me that 70% of the homeless people in Marin County, CA have some form of mental illness. What I want to know is if homelessness causes mental illness or intensifies it. \u00a0Homeless people are under constant stress for survival, safety, access to food, bathrooms, and a place where they can sleep. \u00a0 I believe that traumatic experiences such as fighting in war, poverty, gangs membership, \u00a0physical and sexual assault, drug and alcohol abuse, \u00a0which all cause post traumatic stress also increase mental illness. At my Dad’s hospital, on the crisis unit and both in and out patient, he \u00a0does therapeutic work \u00a0that is interactive, participatory and activity based. He integrates, meditation, yoga, movement, art and music therapy in group sessions. \u00a0 The Odyssey Program for the Homeless and Mentally Ill, help them get housing, \u00a0first they find a \u00a0shelter then \u00a0help them move into low income housing apartments. They also help the clients get \u00a0to appointments, access to meals and groceries. \u00a0 The Bucklew Nonprofit partners with Marin General Hospital as well. They guarantee to find them a job and provide training. \u00a0The Ritter House for the homeless has their own psychiatrist at the Ritter center and makes sure that their clients are getting there needs met. \u00a0Social Services are always the first to be cut from County, State and Federal funding. \u00a0All these programs need more funding for their services and to have more paid positions within the organization to provide services.<\/p>\n

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I have heard the argument that homeless people are lazy, that they should just get a job and stop wasting their time and then begging for money. Clearly this is an irrational argument given the current rates of unemployment, the many types of people who are homeless and reasons why they are homeless. What many … Continue reading Mental Illness and Homelessness<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p47OlK-aP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mcguire-spickard.com\/SOAN324WP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mcguire-spickard.com\/SOAN324WP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mcguire-spickard.com\/SOAN324WP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mcguire-spickard.com\/SOAN324WP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mcguire-spickard.com\/SOAN324WP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=671"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.mcguire-spickard.com\/SOAN324WP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":674,"href":"http:\/\/www.mcguire-spickard.com\/SOAN324WP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671\/revisions\/674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mcguire-spickard.com\/SOAN324WP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mcguire-spickard.com\/SOAN324WP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mcguire-spickard.com\/SOAN324WP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}