Vulnerable Populations
Vulnerable Populations Heather A. Lattea University of Phoenix
BSHS/302 Instructor Foster April 10, 2011 Vulnerable Populations Vulnerability suggests that, when associated with the general population, some people are more sensitive to certain risk factors that can negatively impact his or her well-being. Vulnerable people are sensitive to risks that originate from economic, physical, social, biological, and genetic factors along with their lifestyle behaviors. Rarely does one factor act in seclusion, the interaction of various risks effects in increasing vulnerability to other factors, which also can negatively impact and individual’s health. Violence (abuse), trauma, chronic, terminal, or mental illness, natural disaster, and presently the risk of terrorism can result in increasing vulnerability. Vulnerable populations may include woman, elderly, refugees, immigrants, chronically mentally ill individuals, victims of abuse, homeless individuals, ECT (Burbank, 2006). This paper will explain how critical thinking is used to identify the causes of the problems for the homeless population, including the nature of the homelessness population, a brief history, the demographics and common clinical issues and intervention strategies, and a discussion of future interventions. The Nature of the Homelessness Population Homelessness is a social condition that has no universally agreed upon definition therefore there are many meanings of this word (Martin, 2007). In general, a person is considered to be homeless if he or she lacks a fixed regular address and adequate sleeping arrangements. Homelessness includes people whose primary night-time residence is a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter, an institution that provides a temporarily residence, or a
BSHS/302 Instructor Foster April 10, 2011 Vulnerable Populations Vulnerability suggests that, when associated with the general population, some people are more sensitive to certain risk factors that can negatively impact his or her well-being. Vulnerable people are sensitive to risks that originate from economic, physical, social, biological, and genetic factors along with their lifestyle behaviors. Rarely does one factor act in seclusion, the interaction of various risks effects in increasing vulnerability to other factors, which also can negatively impact and individual’s health. Violence (abuse), trauma, chronic, terminal, or mental illness, natural disaster, and presently the risk of terrorism can result in increasing vulnerability. Vulnerable populations may include woman, elderly, refugees, immigrants, chronically mentally ill individuals, victims of abuse, homeless individuals, ECT (Burbank, 2006). This paper will explain how critical thinking is used to identify the causes of the problems for the homeless population, including the nature of the homelessness population, a brief history, the demographics and common clinical issues and intervention strategies, and a discussion of future interventions. The Nature of the Homelessness Population Homelessness is a social condition that has no universally agreed upon definition therefore there are many meanings of this word (Martin, 2007). In general, a person is considered to be homeless if he or she lacks a fixed regular address and adequate sleeping arrangements. Homelessness includes people whose primary night-time residence is a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter, an institution that provides a temporarily residence, or a
References: Burbank, M. P. (2006). Vulnerable Older Adults: health care needs and interventions. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company, Inc. McNamara, R. H. (2008). Homelessness in America, Volume 1. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. Martin, E. M. (2007). Introduction to Human Services: Through the Eyes of Practice Settings, 1e. Allyn & Bacon, Inc. A Pearson Education Company.