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Homelessness is a global challenge.

The United Nations Human Settlements Program estimates that 1.1 billion people live in inadequate housing, and the best data available suggest that more than 100 million people have no housing at all.

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4. Childhood Stress and Mobility Among Rural Homeless Youth

Stephanie Baker Collins

In this chapter I will report on a longitudinal study of homeless youth in Niagara, a region in Ontario with a unique mix of rural, small town and urban settings. Forty homeless youth participated in the study and 30 youth were followed for an average of 7 months.The findings from this study help examine the causes of youth homelessness, while the characteristics of homeless youth in Canada are reviewed in order to evaluate...

3. Pathways Towards Stability: Young People’s Transitions Off of the Streets

Jeff Karabanow

Ted Naylor

This paper explores the ways in which young people across Canada attempt to get off the streets. The goal of the research was to identify the strategies that young people use and challenges they face in getting off the street in order to inform service providers and policy makers of the experience of transitioning to housing. Findings suggest that there are several connected dimensions to the process of leaving the streets...

2. Reconnecting with Family and Community: Pathways Out of Youth Homelessness

Daphne Winland

Young people become homeless largely because of challenges they experience within their families. Conflicts – whether related to abuse, mental health, or addictions issues of young people or family members – often lead young people to the streets. While for many homeless youth, relations with family members are profoundly damaged and irredeemable, this paper argues for an approach to working with street youth that focuses on...

1. Introduction

Youth homelessness is a seemingly intractable problem in Canada. In communities across the country, people are increasingly aware of the sight of young people who are without a home, sleeping in parks, sitting on sidewalks or asking for money. What do we know about these young people, and what should we do? Youth Homelessness in Canada: Implications for Policy and Practice aims to fill a gap in the information available on...

Youth Homelessness in Canada: Implications for Policy and Practice

Valuing context and collaboration in population health intervention research: a realist review of community treatment approaches for homeless adults with concurrent disorders

Kelly Murphy

Patricia O'Campo

Emily Holton

Homeless people experience significant, persistent inequities in health and access to health care services compared to the general population. When a homeless person has a concurrent mental health and substance use disorder (concurrent disorder), it puts them at even more disadvantage. The prevalence of concurrent disorders in the homeless population is estimated to be 10-20 percent across North America, although the actual...

‘‘Because Somebody Cared about Me. That’s How It Changed Things’’: Homeless, Chronically Ill Patients’ Perspectives on Case Management

Elizabeth Davis

Aracely Tamayo

Alicia Fernandez

Case management programs for chronically ill, homeless people improve health and resource utilization by linking patients with case managers focused on improving management of medical and psychosocial problems. Little is known about participants’ perspectives on case management interventions. This qualitative study used in-depth, one-on-one interviews to understand the impact of a case management program from the perspective...

Improving Access to Psychosocial Interventions for Common Mental Health Problems in the United Kingdom: Narrative Review and Development of a Conceptual Model for Complex Interventions

In the United Kingdom and worldwide, there is significant policy interest in improving the quality of care for patients with mental health disorders and distress. Improving quality of care means addressing not only the effectiveness of interventions but also the issue of limited access to care. Research to date into improving access to mental health care has not been strongly rooted within a conceptual model, nor has it...

The Impact of Running Away on Teen Girls’ Sexual Health

Terri Lacoursiere

Holly B. Fontenot

This article reviews three recent studies investigating the impact of running away on adolescent females’ sexual health. There are between 500,000 and 2.8 million runaway and homeless youth in the U.S. at any point in time, and adolescent females are at increased risk as compared to males. All three studies analyzed data from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and each examined a different health risk...

Circumstances of first injection among illicit drug users using a medically supervised safer injection facility

There have been concerns that safer injecting facilities may promote initiation into injection drug use. We examined length of injecting career and circumstances surrounding initiation into injection drug use among 1065 users of North America's first safer injecting facility and found that the median years of injection drug use were 15.9 years, and that only 1 individual reported performing a first injection at the safer...

CHRA Emerging Professional Research Colloquium

<img src="http://www.chra-achru.ca/media/content/english.jpg" align="right">The Canadian Housing and Renewal Association’s 45th Annual National Congress on Housing and Homelessness takes place April 30 – May 3, 2013 in Ottawa. The Congress brings together approximately 400 delegates as the must-attend event for housing practitioners, decision-makers, policy experts and the...

Mental health, concurrent disorders, and health care utilization in homeless women

This study assessed lifetime and current prevalence rates of mental disorders and concurrent mental and substance use disorders in a sample of homeless women. Current suicide risk and recent health service utilization were also examined in order to understand the complex mental health issues of this population and to inform the development of new treatment strategies that better meet their specific needs. Methods. A cross-...

The Association Between Childhood Maltreatment Subtypes and Current Suicide Risk Among Homeless men and Women

This study explored self-reports of five childhood maltreatment (CM) subtypes and their associations with current suicide risk in a sample of 500 homeless persons. Participants completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview. Individual, unique, and cumulative associations of CM subtypes and subtype combinations with suicide risk (no vs. low vs. moderate/high) were examined....

Services for Homeless Immigrants: The Social Welfare Capital of Polish Rough Sleepers in Brussels and Oslo

Magdalena. Mostowska

The dynamics of migration indicate that the concept of citizenship, and eligibility for particular benefits, is in the process of redefinition in Europe. Migrants may be among the most vulnerable actors on the housing market, and due to their economic position, and their social and language skills, they may be at greater risk of homelessness. In the case of migrants facing physical homelessness there may be problems accessing...

The Convergent and Concurrent Validity of Trait-Based Prototype Assessment of Personality Disorder Categories in Homeless Persons

Douglas B. Samuel

Adrian J. Connolly

Samuel A. Ball

The DSM-5 proposal indicates that personality disorders (PDs) be defined as collections of maladaptive traits but does not provide a specific diagnostic method. However, researchers have previously suggested that PD constructs can be assessed by comparing individuals’ trait profiles with those prototypic of PDs and evidence from the five-factor model (FFM) suggests that these prototype matching scores converge moderately with...

Childhood Abuse, Criminal Victimisation, Sex Work, and Substance Use Among Homeless Street Youth: An Application of General Strain Theory

Nicolas A. Swagar

Robert Agnew’s general strain theory proposes that strain leads to crime and deviance. Substance use is a specific type of criminal behavior that the theory attempts to explain. This thesis uses general strain theory to examine how a number of specific types of strain – homelessness, childhood abuse, criminal victimization, and sex work – are related to substance use. In addition, the relationships between strain and...

Mental Health Services for Homeless: Patient Profile and Factors Associated with Suicide and Homicide

E. Dunne

M. Duggan

J. O'Mahony

This study aimed to establish a profile of users of the mental health service for homeless in Cork, comparing this group with those attending a General Adult Service. The homeless group were significantly more likely to be male (89% v 46%), unemployed (96% v 68%), unmarried (98% v 75%) and under 65 (94% v 83%). Diagnostically, there was a significantly higher prevalence of schizophrenia (50% v 34%); personality disorder (37%...

Completion and Subject Loss within an Intensive Hepatitis Vaccination Intervention among Homeless Adults: The Role of Risk Factors, Demographics, and Psychosocial Variables

Judith A. Stein

Unprotected sexual behavior, needle sharing, and a prison history are major correlates of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV). These risk factors are common among homeless people who also have elevated rates of HBV. The study examines whether these behaviors were associated with completion and/or loss to follow-up of the most intensive and successful condition of a 3-arm HBV vaccination intervention. Significant results would imply that...

Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome in a Predominantly Cuban, Psychiatrically Ill, and Homeless Population

Rafael A. Rivas-Vazquez

This study examined the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among a group of psychiatric outpatients enrolled in a homeless program that is located in a predominantly Hispanic geographic area of South Florida. Data for this retrospective, cross-sectional analysis were obtained from a record review of 122 adult patients who received full medical and psychiatric assessments based on DSM-IV criteria during participation in our...

Homelessness, Housing, and Health Geography: The Impact of Housing on the Health of Chronically Ill Homeless Adults

Dawn Petroskas

Interventions are needed to reduce the health disparities that exist in homeless populations. Housing, often viewed as an outcome to be achieved, has become increasingly recognized as an innovative health care intervention. Through the lens of health geography, this study sought to understand how housing is health care for formerly long-term homeless adults with chronic illnesses. The study (a) explores how the places of...

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