Page: 2
By: Young, Suzannah

Description:
It is often observed that homeless people appear disproportionately affected by health problems compared with the general population. This situation must be addressed, but we should avoid pathologising or psychologising homelessness. Neither should we typify homeless experiences. The relationship between health and homelessness is multifaceted. Addressing these issues therefore concerns many interrelated questions. These can include questions relating to cause and effect, services, training and data collection, amongst others.

Eu Provisions and recent developments relevant to Health and Homelessness
Page: 4 
By: Del Zotto, Stefania

Description:
There is an obvious link between living conditions and individual state of health and wellbeing. Research shows that people who are homeless often suffer from a number of health problems, including issues related to physical health, mental health, substance abuse and dual diagnose. Rates of certain serious infectious diseases are significantly higher, while there are usually also high levels of substance misuse and far higher rates of mental ill-health among people experiencing homelessness than among the general population. Despite this, most of the time, access to healthcare, and therefore to their right to health, continues to remain a challenge for homeless people across Europe.

Access for Homeless People to Healthcare in Northern Europe: The danish/Scandinavian Perspective
Page: 7
By: Thiesen, Henrik

Description:
During the last ten years, projects have been aiming at describing and implementing healthcare for people who are marginalized for different reasons. Different specific health problems in specific groups have been addressed and it has led to more diverse view on ailments that can be found among socially vulnerable people. There is a lack of correspondence between much of the research done on homeless health and the practical projects implemented to improve homeless people’s health.

Dysfunctional Healthcare for Homeless People in barcelona 
Page: 11
By: Vilarrodona, Joan U.

Description:
This article stems from the results of a study on the state of health of and healthcare for homeless people in Barcelona. The research study was conducted to fill the information gap on the healthcare needs of these people which were largely unknown to us.

The Catalonia Health Survey (known by the Spanish acronym ‘ESCA’) was used, duly adapted for the homeless population, to interview 611 people representative of the entire homeless population of Barcelona – a universe of some 1900 people on a given day, which suggests a total population of around 3000 people per year.

The Health of women in dutch women’s Shelters
Page: 14 
By: Jonker, Irene; Wolf, Judith

Description:
The prevention and fight against domestic violence has been high on the political and social agenda for years. The term “domestic violence” refers to current or former physical and/or sexual violence between former or current intimate partners, adult members of a household, or grown children and a parent (Sugg et al., 1999). Domestic violence occurs in all social strata and in all cultures in Dutch society (Movisie, 2009). If we examine only violence by (former) partners, known as Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), then 12% of the population (1 in 8 people in the Netherlands) has been affected by it at some point (Dijk et al., 1997). The prevalence of mental and/or sexual violence by a current or former partner is about 25% in the United States (Tjaden and Thoennes, 2000) and varies between 4% and 30% in Europe (HagemannWhite, 2001).

Reducing Health Inequalities in the Eu
Page: 18 
By: Estrela, Edite

Description:
The European Parliament has recently adopted my report on “reducing health inequalities in the European Union (EU)”. Nevertheless, concerns over the extent and the consequences of health inequalities – both between and within Member States – have been expressed over the years by the EU Institutions and many stakeholders.

In 2007, the EU Health Strategy set out the basis to carry out further work to reduce inequities in health. The European Council of June 2008 also underlined the importance of closing the gap in health and in life expectancy between and within Member States. These principles were reiterated in the 2008 Commission Communication on a Renewed Social Agenda, which restated the fundamental social objectives of Europe through equal opportunities, access and solidarity, and announced the Commission Communication on “Solidarity in Health: Reducing Health Inequalities in the EU”, presented in October 2009 with the purpose of outlining a European strategy to reduce health inequalities.

The Mental Health of Homeless People: Findings and recommendations from a Survey in Mainland France
Page: 20 
By: Laporte, Anne; Le Méner, Erwan; Détrez, Marc-Antoine; Chauvin, Pierre

Description:
Homeless people are often vilified as combining mental illness with social exclusion through labels like “drunk, stoned, crazy and sick” (Snow et al., 1986) - a common portrayal of homeless individuals that clearly pays scant regard to the wide range of life courses, situations and patterns of homelessness. And yet nothing is more certain than the difficulties and distress that welfare workers experience when confronted with psychiatric disorders. They have been a major focus of discussion by social exclusion professionals since as far back as the mid-1990s both in France (Girard et al. 2009; Lazarus & Strohl, 1995)

Homeless Health Services, Tuberculosis and Economic Crisis: A Tale of Three Citie
Page: 24 
By: Story, Alistair; Slockers, Marcel; Arrazola de Onate, Wouter; Hewett, Nigel; van Hest, Rob

Description:
People experiencing homelessness are in a chronic state of social and medical crisis and die prematurely from treatable medical conditions. Their daily struggle to meet the most basic needs, shelter, sustenance and safety, relegates their health needs to a lower priority. Providing effective medical care for homeless people challenges traditional health services which depend on timely presentation, adherence to prescribed treatment and advice and critically, the patient’s ability to rest, recuperate and recover in an environment outside of the healthcare system – namely a ‘home’. Consequently, for homeless people, common illnesses progress, injuries fester and patients’ physical and mental health, addiction and social problems deteriorate and compound one another. Effective models of care must address this interaction and provide simultaneous social and medical support.

Should we be delivering Healthcare On The Street? The role of Street Medicine in Providing Healthcare to roofless People
Page: 29 
By: Jones, Angela

Description:
It is taken more or less for granted that social care agencies should provide some outreach services to homeless people on the street. The exact nature of the services may be a matter of contention and concern, especially if the services could be interpreted as enabling, “encouraging” or maintaining a “homeless lifestyle”. However, few would argue that, among entrenched rough sleepers, there are many who would be unlikely to access services unless approached directly on the street and, in that way, encouraged to engage with services.

Rethinking Training on Health and Homelessness: Challenging utilitarian Approaches and re-Owning Client-Centerednes

By: Seal, Mike

Description:
In principle, healthcare in the UK should be available and accessible to all, as we have a National Health Service (NHS). In practice, however, access to healthcare for homeless people remains difficult (Bevan: 2007, Jones:2009). Homeless Link (2010) say that many homeless people are refused services, and Croft-White & Parry-Crooke (2004) say that primary care doctors (GPs) still resist registration for care for homeless people, particularly when those people have multiple needs. The later report (2004) also found that where problematic drug and/or alcohol use was one of the presenting problems, the barrier was almost insurmountable; with only a handful of GPs in each of the case study areas they examined being prepared to register this group of clients.

A Snapshot of Health Issues Experienced by People who Are Homeless in Ireland 
Page: 35 
By: Randall, Niamh

Description:
There are many different reasons why a person becomes homeless, but generally the explanation lies in a combination of structural factors (such as poverty or unemployment) and personal factors (such as family breakdown or health problems). What is clear is that once a person becomes homeless, the deterioration in their physical and mental health can be both rapid and debilitating. The Simon Communities believe that every person has the right to enjoy the highest possible standard of health. The experience of homelessness may result in serious and persistent violations of this fundamental right.