Introduction
Protecting vulnerable populations is one of the significant tasks of contemporary society. The unresolved issues might impact the quality of people’s lives and worsen. For this reason, it is essential to monitor the situation to realize the relevant needs and risk factors and introduce programs and incentives to resolve them. For instance, indigent and homeless people are potentially vulnerable because of the lack of social protection and problematic access to health and other resources necessary for their well-being. Under these conditions, there is a critical need to collect credible information about this population group and design a new program aimed at helping them and meeting essential needs that exist at the moment.
Vulnerability of Homeless and Indigent Populations
Homelessness and poverty remain critical issues in the USA and globally. According to the official statistics, around 515,737 individuals experienced homelessness in the USA in 2020 (Khatana et al., 2020). Moreover, around 37,9 million people live below the poverty line (Creamer et al., 2022). It means that the problem is significant and requires attention.
The vulnerability of this group is also impacted by gender and age. For instance, homeless women living in metropolitan areas have a higher risk of being abused, harassed, and suffering from physical violence or mental diseases (Li & Urada, 2020). Additionally, young homeless people might face the risk of high mortality because of multimorbidity, injury, violence, or mental health issues (Heerde & Patton, 2020). In such a way, these two factors impact the chosen vulnerable population group.
The selected cohort’s state and vulnerability can also be viewed as a result of the intersection of social, political, and economic factors. For instance, the disruptive effects of education, transition to employment, and finding sources of income impact young people and their ability to succeed in modern communities (Heerde & Patton, 2020). As a result, they might fail to support their families, suffer from the effects of poverty, and require additional support. Furthermore, women might suffer from the lack of adequate policies providing support during their motherhood or protecting them from potential abuse (Li & Urada, 2020). As a result, they suffer from the inability to pay for shelter and become vulnerable.
In such a way, homeless and indigent people require support from communities. The problem can be managed by designing a new model program focused on helping the vulnerable population and improving the quality of their lives. The incentive can be called We All Are People and implies that specific solutions are necessary.
First of all, the population has a higher risk of hospitalization and mortality rates compared to individuals with shelters (Khatana et al., 2020). Second, the cohort has specific health needs, such as chronic conditions, mental illness, substance abuse, and depression (Kiser & Hulton, 2018). The lack of attention to these needs will lead to increased risks of increased mortality rates, abuse, and suffering.
In such a way, considering the risks and health issues mentioned above, the program will focus on creating a long-term continuum of care. Several factors can explain the choice. First, the preventive approaches might be ineffective because of the need to reconsider political and economic factors, requiring too much effort. At the same time, the nature of risks and the prevalence of chronic conditions among the vulnerable population show a need for long-term care to ensure that every case is analyzed and considered appropriately. For this reason, the proposed program focuses on establishing the paradigm for prolonged cooperation with the group’s representatives to help them and avoid new problems in the future.
The program will also include specific services for supporting homeless or poor people. First, it will offer emergency shelters for individuals treated in the emergency departments. Recovering in a safe environment will positively impact the readmissions and new hospitalization rates (Khatana et al., 2020).
Second, the program will provide psychological services for young people or women who have suffered from abuse. Statistically, it is one of the most common problems peculiar to this cohort, meaning it is essential to help address it. The program will benefit from using local communities’ resources and volunteers, including health specialists, who are ready to work with homeless people in shelters and support them.
Conclusion
Altogether, homeless and indigent people can be considered a vulnerable population group. They suffer from a lack of access to the necessary economic resources and policies protecting them. For this reason, there is a critical need to design new programs focused on helping these population groups.
The proposed incentive will build a long-term approach to managing most risks and issues. It will offer emergency shelters and psychological support for homeless and indigent people to promote improvement in their states and ensure the situation becomes better. The program will use the available community resources and claim the government’s support. In general, addressing the needs of at-risk groups is a major responsibility of modern society. For this reason, the offered program is essential for building better communities and improving the nation’s health.
References
Creamer, J., Shrider, E., Burns, K., & Chen, F. (2022). Poverty in the United States: 2021. United States Census Bureau. Web.
Heerde, J. A., & Patton, G. C. (2020). The vulnerability of young homeless people. The Lancet. Public Health, 5(6), e302–e303. Web.
Khatana, S. A. M., Wadhera, R. K., Choi, E., Groeneveld, P. W., Culhane, D. P., Kushel, M., Kazi, D. S., Yeh, R. W., & Shen, C. (2020). Association of homelessness with hospital readmissions-an analysis of three large states. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 35(9), 2576–2583. Web.
Kiser, T., & Hulton, L. (2018). Addressing health care needs in the homeless population: A new approach using participatory action research. SAGE Open, 8(3). Web.
Li, J. S., & Urada, L. A. (2020). Cycle of perpetual vulnerability for women facing homelessness near an urban library in a major U.S metropolitan area. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(16), 5985. Web.