A Descriptive Study of Single Adults in Homeless Shelters: Increasing Counselors' Knowledge and Social Action
✍ Scribed by Jennifer Baggerly; Carlos P. Zalaquett
- Publisher
- American Counseling Association
- Year
- 2006
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 72 KB
- Volume
- 34
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0883-8534
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
This article is intended to help counselors increase their knowledge and social action for single adults who are homeless. Findings from a period-prevalence study of 71 single adults in a homeless shelter over 2 years reveal demographics, mental health needs, and sociopolitical issues of this population. Implications including social justice action strategies for counselors are discussed.
Este artículo se piensa ayudar consejeros aumentan su conocimiento y la acción social para adultos soltero que son sin hogar. Las conclusiones de un estudio del período-predominio de 71 adultos soltero en un refugio sin hogar sobre 2 años revelan las necesidades demográficas, la necesidades mentales de la salud, y las aplicaciones sociopolíticas de esta población. Implicaciones incluyendo las estrategias sociales de la acción de justicia para consejeros se discuten.
C
ounselors have received recent challenges to expand their multicultural competence through social justice leadership (Arredondo & Perez, 2003;Bemak & Chi-Ying Chung, 2005). Counselors have a social and ethical responsibility to develop multicultural counseling competencies and to engage in social action for people of differing cultures and socioeconomic classes (Sue & Sue, 2003). One diverse population that has continued to increase over the past quarter of a century is composed of people who are homeless.
The U.S. homeless population of the 1950s and 1960s was typically composed of older men living in cheap hotels and was declining significantly in the 1970s (Rossi, 1990). However, in the 1980s this "old" homeless population was replaced by a "new" homeless population that was younger, was more ethnically diverse, and included more women and children (Rossi, 1990). This "new" homeless population increased substantially in the 1980s when President Reagan's economic policies resulted in a reduction of employment opportunities for a large segment of the workforce, a decline in affordable housing units available for low income people, and a decrease in value and availability of public assistance (National Coalition for the Homeless [NCH], 2005b). In addition, Reagan's administration closed many state psychiatric facilities and cut public funding, resulting in people with mental illness living on the streets (NCH, 2005b).