Homelessness

[anita choudhary]

“What does homelessness mean to me?”
I heard this word many times but I never really thought what does it really mean to me. I ask my patient about their social situation to help them with placement but I never really thought beyond that. I would get sad hearing their story knowing what they are going through but then I would forget the sadness and get busy in my own routine. The reason we forget it so easily because we have a safe place to go at the end of the day. Hence, I feel not having a safe place to go to is homelessness to me. The meaning of homelessness becomes more clearer when one think about the consequences of not having a home.

“Using the biopsychosocial model I learned about last clinic week, how can I better serve my homeless patients?”
Most of the patient population I have seen at DCC clinic require some sort of social help. Hence, I always learnt to ask the patients about their social situation, safe environment at home and screen for mental health. As we learnt from SDH modules that mental health is one of the major etiology for homelessness. Fortunately, there is a community health worker and mental health worker at DCC clinic, which helps to provide patient care at a larger scale. I also believe to always screen patient for their mental health and stress at home or work, as homelessness is not the problem, it is the consequence of the problem. It is important to have a holistic awareness of the entire spectrum of patient’s health and well-being and how these are underpinned by their life circumstances.

“How can I and my program better collaborate with the homeless community agencies I learned about? (name them).”

– Our GMAP clinic can collaborate with agencies to assist our patient population for social situation. It would be great to have a social worker in clinic. Also, we can have pamphlets consisting of information about housing, free clinic, etc to provide to patients who need it. Samhsa is a great online resource for substance abuse and mental health services. Other resources like Homeless shelter directory, MSHDA, community housing network.

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