Substance Use in the Homeless and the lack of access to Healthcare

Substance abuse has a detrimental effect on the homeless. This group is more at risk than the general population to suffer from substance use. Based off a sample of homeless in Canada, although people who are homeless are entitled to equal access to health care legally, they are implicitly denied service. Some barriers include, “a lack of contact points (telephone, mailing/email addresses) for follow-up, inadequate transportation to ambulatory care settings, financial barriers, mental health, substance abuse problems, difficulty in storing medications, and challenges in retaining personal belongings.”(Thurston, 2012.) Additionally, “existing health care and hospice facilities may be reluctant to accept homeless patients due to behavior and lifestyle concerns, and for their part, people who are homeless may not trust the health care system and its institutions.”(Thurston, 2012.)

One solution would be to speak to the homeless. Talk to them and ask for what reasons do they do drugs? Usually, we can see that drug usage is the result of a neglected need of sorts. Crippling social isolation or a need for what they do not have. Drugs can, but not always, be used as a bandage fix as sorts. Another solution would to petition your local city and state government elected officials. Call/E-mail and get health care for the homeless at the forefront of their agenda. One vote is one more. Political activism, with political awareness, even visiting your local county boards, is the solution. Why might homeless people still experience lack of access to immediate health care? Why might clinics deny service on the basis of “[needing] a contact point”? One speculation is that there is no money to be made from the homeless. Highly privatized medical companies, who serve only customers, serve no free lunches. Homeless people are not the audience they are looking for. It is the work of organizations and associations that help the homeless. Homeless people are marginalized in Western society, and have mortality rates have than the average person.

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