Drug and Substance Abuse among the Homeless. Homeless population.

Drug and Substance Abuse among the Homeless
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Introduction
The Health People 2020 initiatives are some of the yard sticks that are used by the United States Department of Health And Human Services with reference to having a much healthier nation in the decade. The initiatives that are depicted in the document are a guide for the various groups around the states dealing with the health issues of the people to develop better care programs. The 2020 initiatives totalled to eleven, covering the various aspects of the health concerns of the states (Healthy People, 2014).
Among the objects that are set out in the initiatives for this decade relate to the level of drug and substance abuse among the people of the nation. This objective is set out to stream the efforts to reduce the drug and substance abuse while at the same time making sure that the quality, safety of life and the people’s health is thoroughly protected. Records indicate that, back in the year 2005, more than 22 million Americans were struggling with drug and substance, while at the same time more than 95% of the people during the time did not know that they had a problem. Where the patients have recognised that they have a problem and sought after treatment, more than 250,000 patients have reported that they have not been successful at their efforts. Drugs and substance abuse is one of the aspects in the society that has grieved consequences on the patients, their families and the society in general. Problems of the vice range from road carnage, homicide, suicide and sexually transmitted diseases among other aspects that implicate on the patient’s life, that f the society and the economy as well. While at a glance the problem solution may seem to be a straight forward affair, it is one of the complexes vile in the society. The complexity of the problem relates to the number of the interested parties and the scale of the influence that most the people that deal the drugs and the substance have. Other than that, there are also the social attitudes, political complexities as well the legal responses to beat before the states are fully cleaned of the substances and drugs.
Purpose of the paper
The purpose of the paper is to look into the interventions that can be implemented to make sure that the homeless have a chance to fight off the vile from the streets. As mentioned earlier, most of the patients that have tried to get assistance for the drug use from the formal means have failed. This due to the lack of stream lined policies that in a position to handle the high number of patients abusing drugs and substances. For the homeless people the problem doubles in some of the cases triples, considering they do not have a health program that they follow. All of them do not a means of sustainable income that can feed them and cater for their health needs. This also extends to the fact that majority do not have health insurance. While it is just a simple majority of the other population that is addicted to the use of the drugs and substances, the highest percentage of the homeless persons are struggling with drug abuse. This is most due to the fact that most of the people that are homeless have had lot frustrations in their lives and thus lose hope and turn to the drugs and substances for solace. The situation with the homeless not only becomes more prevalent but also requires a well-rounded approach to the problems that they are facing. This means that the interventions will have to look beyond the drugs and test the causes and how best to take care of them (Lewis, Ganann, Krishnaratne, Ciliska, Kouyoumdjian &Hwang, 2011).
While some the persons that are homeless have been found to enter the state of homelessness and then exited making better use of their lives some have been found to be chronically homeless. In most of the states this groups utilizes the resource of the homeless system, which includes the hospital, streets, jail and prisons among others that are not formal, for more than 290 days of the year. Majority of the chronic homeless person shave also been found to have complex health issues, ranging from the mental illness to severe addiction to the various drugs and substances they can find on the streets. At the national level, statistics indicate that there are more than 200,000 persons that are chronically homeless; this is just a small share of the larger population that is the homeless society.
Research has shown that there is a relationship between homelessness and the acts of domestic violence. Every year there are more than 1.3 million cases of women that have been subjected to the cruel acts, this translates to about one out of every woman violated. Economically the same translates to about 4 million dollars of the tax payers money, spent on services rendered to the victims and the mental treatment. By extension to the prevalence and the costs, majority of the women that are homeless have a background with the vile. Statistically, more than 40% of the homeless persons report that domestic violence is their primary cause of their situation in life. The idea of homelessness does not only affect the single families as records show that more than 60,000 families every year experience the turmoil of turning up homeless. Families that have children are not an exception and of late the rate has risen. The assistance housing programs around the major cities in the states have also reported an increase in the number of families that turn up to ask for assistance. In majority of the cities the root cause of the prevalence is linked to rates of poverty and the lack of affordable housing: two aspects that will ultimately render people homeless (Lewis, Ganann,Krishnaratne, Ciliska, Kouyoumdjian &Hwang, 2011).
With the level of frustrations that the homeless people have gone through before they lose their homes and the efforts to try and get their lives back in shape, many of them turn to drugs. More than 40% of the homeless population depend on alcohol for the feeling of relaxation, while more than 30% use other drugs including the hard drugs. The former percentage that uses alcohol includes majority of the older generation, while the youths use the hard drugs in most of the time. Although majority of the homeless turn to drugs due to the frustration of the economy and their life, there is also a significant lot that is homeless to due to their drug and substance related abuse. This is a group that incorporates the addicts that could not find hep and thus became homeless after falling out with their families and employers (HYPERLINK "/pubmed?term=Wenzel%20SL%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=20656423"Wenzel , HYPERLINK "/pubmed?term=Tucker%20JS%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=20656423"Tucker, HYPERLINK "/pubmed?term=Golinelli%20D%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=20656423"Golinelli, HYPERLINK "/pubmed?term=Green%20HD%20Jr%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=20656423"Green &HYPERLINK "/pubmed?term=Zhou%20A%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=20656423"Zhou, 2010).
There is direct line that exists between the drug use and the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases and the cases of mental illnesses. More than a million persons in the United States are infected with the HIV/AIDS virus and the homeless are the majority in the group, with new infections rising on a daily basis. This rate has been boosted by the fact that the medical treatment available for the infected patients id quite expensive. There is also the added danger of discrimination and loss of jobs associated with disclosure. This increases the infection rates daily.
While a significant majority of the persons that are homeless are due to the fact that they lost their jobs, had domestic violence and addiction, there is also the case of the mental ill persons that are on the streets. On average more than 20% of the population that lives on the streets has some form of mental illness. This therefore raises the bar for the development of the interventions. Mental illness means that these persons cannot form sustainable relationships and are not in a position to maintain complex practices such as jobs, health care, and home management. Most of the people that have metal conditions try treating themselves using the drugs that they can buy from the streets and end up developing addiction to them (HYPERLINK "/pubmed?term=Salem%20BE%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=24325770"Salem, HYPERLINK "/pubmed?term=Nyamathi%20A%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=24325770"Nyamathi , HYPERLINK "ht...