Risky Families
For more than 25 years, homelessness has been one of the major concerns for the government of the US. The number of homeless people has been on a constant rise for the part 2 decades. The National Center on Family Homelessness estimates that close to 37% (about 77,500 families) of American population are homeless families with a population that makes up a third of the entire population of homeless people in America. The NCFH further asserts that these statistics are the highest in any given industrialized nation pointing to the fact that the US is incontestably the industrial country with the highest number of homeless families (National Center on Family Homelessness, 2012). Family homelessness is caused by a combined effect of several factors such as family violence, lack affordable housing, fractured social supports and the changing family demographics, among other factors (NCFH, 2012). The problem of family homelessness puts a massive pressure on the US national budget every year as a lot of funds are set aside to providing medical care to homeless people as well as re-sheltering homeless families.
With most studies hypothesizing that homeless people lack proper medical care, documented studies of the health status of homeless people point to a strong correlation between homelessness and poor health status. There is a significant disparity between the average health status of the general population to the health status of homeless people (O’Campo et. al. 2009). According to O’Campo et. al. (2009), homeless people have a high likelihood of suffering from chronic health conditions such as diabetes, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis with over 20% reportedly suffering from mental illnesses.
The healthy people 2020 goal associated with STI revolves around the promotion of healthy sexual behaviors, strengthening community capacity as well as increasing access to medical care in an effort to prevent the transmission of STIs (Healthy People 2020, 2012). In the same light, the improvement of mental health can be attainable through various ways such as prevention and enhancement of access to medical care is the main of objective as highlighted on the healthy people 2020 website (Healthy People 2020, 2012). .
Sample Homeless Family
John lost his job as a construction worker following the collapse of the Florida construction industry. Having lost his wife, a medical assistant as a local hospital, John, who was at the time living with his wife and children in a mortgage house was left as the sole bread winner for the family. Apparently, it was John’s wife, Maggie, who was paying the mortgage, and in less than a year after Maggie’s death, the family lost their house as a result of a foreclosure during the Subprime mortgage crisis of 2008. With John still jobless, the family inevitably had to relocate into a truck he had bought while still working. An interview with John overly helped me appreciate some of the health problems facing a plethora of homeless people in the US. According to John, his daughter recently contracted STI; John admits that the living-in-a-truck life does not go well with Sally, (his daughter) and she constantly has to spend nights at her boyfriends’ (who have increased in number ever since the family moved into the truck). Expressing her concern about his daughters increased chances of contracting HIV, John Also admits that family does not have proper access to medical care and Sally brother constantly suffers from flu.
Applicable Nursing Interventions and Relevant Nursing Theory
With regards to John’s family, Pesznecker’s Adaptational Model of Poverty presents one of the possible interventions applicable in a bid to better health deliver to homeless families. According to the model, healthcare delivery for the homeless can be bettered through the formulation of strategies that aim at empowering the homeless people to develop skills and most importantly self esteem utile is moving out of homelessness and poverty besides capacitating them to respond positively even in the event of lack of such opportunities (Hunter, 1993). Besides opening avenues for stress management training for the homeless families, the model is useful in developing much needed support systems for the homeless while encouraging nurses to be involved in the government’s effort of ameliorating the homelessness phenomenon (Hunter, 1993). The adoption of Community health nursing as a strategy is yet another way through which the health care delivery for homeless families can be bettered. As hunter purports, community health nursing provides direct medical health care to the people hence presents a means through which health care can be brought closer to the homeless families.
Based on the ideology that all patients wish to care for themselves, the Self-care deficit nursing theory also known as the Orem model of nursing can find wide usage in defining the actions of nurses in light of the problem of family homelessness. The role of nurses with regards to this nursing theory would be to encourage the homeless people to be mindful of their own health, for instance through maintaining proper body hygiene. According to the theory, a self care deficit occurs when an individual is unable to take care of the health care needs (Simmons, 2009; Biggs, 2008). In this regards, Naji, Nasrabadi, Marzieh Shaban, & Saebnia (2009) and Biggs (2008) postulates that nurses (for instance an advanced practice nurse) should only come in to educate, guide and provide treatment to people who cannot meet their health care needs.
Recommendation
It is affirmable that homelessness is a complex phenomenon that requires overly shrewd intervention strategies to be meliorated. The homelessness phenomenon, just like any other complex phenomenon, demands evidence-based strategies whose success can only be guaranteed if the strategies are carefully implemented.
Conclusion
Concisely, health care delivery to the homeless family can be improved with the adoption of the Pesznecker’s Adaptational Model of Poverty and the implementation of Community health nursing under the guidance of the goals highlighted in the healthy people 2020 website. Moreover, the Orem model of nursing, as a nursing theory, is can be utilitarian is deciding on the actions that nurses can take as part of the joint effort to better health care delivery to the homeless families.
References
Biggs, A. (2008). Orem's Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory: Update on the State of the Art and
Science. Nursing Science Quarterly, 21(3): 200-206
Healthy People 2020 (2012). 2020 Topics and Objectives. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topicsobjectives2020/default.aspx
Hunter, J. K. (1993). Nursing and Health Care for the Homeless. Albany: Suny Press.
Naji, H., Nasrabadi A. N., Shaban, M. & Saebnia, R. (2009). The effect of using Orem's model of self-care on recovery of patients with heart failure. IJNMR,14(4): 174-179. Retrieved from http://www.sid.ir/en/VEWSSID/J_pdf/118120090404.pdf
Parker, M. E. (Ed.). (1990). Nursing Theories in Practice. New York: National League for Nursing
Simmons, L. (2009). Dorthea Orem's Self Care Theory as Related to Nursing Practice in Hemodialysis. Nephrol Nurs J. 36(4):419-21.
