Solving Homelessness: The Need For Innovative Solutions And The Role Of Health Care

Homelessness affects people from many walks of life. A recent study found that one out of 25 Americans have been homeless sometime in their lives. Tales of how people became homeless and what their lives have been like since they have become homeless are often disheartening and complex. As illustrated in Tammy Kling’s Narrative Matters essay in the May issue of Health Affairs, “Dave Didn’t Have To Die: On Health Care For Homeless Patients,” many people who are homeless have major medical, mental health, and social needs. Dave is not an anomaly: People who are homeless die sooner than their housed counterparts, with studies showing age-adjusted mortality rates many-fold higher for people who are homeless than for those who are not. The issue of health care for people who are homeless is complex, and in some ways even paradoxical. On the one hand, people who are homeless tend to use the health care system—and especially acute care such as that provided in the emergency department—more than average. On the other hand, people who are homeless still have higher-than-average unmet health needs. There are a multitude of different reasons for this and no simple solutions. External factors such as lack of truly accessible health care options are combined with internal factors such as mental illness and cognitive impairment, with different problems for different individuals. Many of the problems that lead people to become homeless can also be the reasons why they do...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Health Equity Insurance and Coverage Medicaid and CHIP Narrative Matters Population Health Public Health homelessness Medicaid expansion mobile health care Tammy Kling Veterans Health Administration Source Type: blogs