Voices of the Homeless: An Emic Approach to the Experiences of Health Disparities Faced by People Who Are Homeless

Personal recovery and socio-structural disadvantage: A critical conceptual review

Despite its seeming breadth and diversity, the bulk of the personal (mental health) recovery literature has remained strangely 'silent' about the impact of various socio-structural inequalities on the recovery process. Such an inadequacy of the empirical literature is not without consequences since the systematic omission or downplaying, at best, of the socio-structural conditions of living for persons with lived experience of mental health difficulties may inadvertently reinforce a reductionist view of recovery as an atomised, individualised phenomenon. Motivated by those limitations in extant scholarship, a critical literature review was conducted to identify and critique relevant research to problematise the notion of personal recovery in the context of socio-structural disadvantage such as poverty, homelessness, discrimination and inequalities. The review illuminates the scarcity of empirical research and the paucity of sociologically-informed theorisation regarding how recovery is shaped by the socio-structural conditions of living. Those inadequacies are especially pertinent to homelessness research, whereby empirical investigations of personal recovery have remained few and undertheorised. The gaps in the research and theorising about the relational, contextual and socio-structural embeddedness of recovery are distilled. The critical review concludes that personal recovery has remained underresearched, underproblematised and undertheorised, especially in the context of homelessness and other forms of socio-structural disadvantage. Understanding how exclusionary social arrangements affect individuals' recovery, and the coping strategies that they deploy to negotiate those, is likely to inform anti-oppressive interventions that could eventually remove the structural constraints to human emancipation and flourishing.

Effects of a service-learning experience on health-related students' attitudes toward the homeless

OBJECTIVES

A community engagement service-learning experience was planned to provide health services for the homeless during a local 1-day event. The objectives were to (a) determine the feasibility of a service-learning experience, and to (b) examine the effects on students' attitudes toward persons experiencing homelessness.

METHODS

A quasi-experimental, institutional review board approved study, including health-related students enrolled in a local university or community college, was planned. The attitudes toward the homeless survey was administered before and after participation in the service-learning experience. Qualitative data were through student reflections of the experience.

RESULTS

Participants (n = 106) completed a pre and post questionnaire and a self-reflection. A statistically significant t(26) = -2.2, p = .04 change in attitudes toward the homeless were found. Three themes were revealed from the reflections: inherent bias, individualized care, and the societal context of people experiencing homelessness.

CONCLUSION

Both quantitative and qualitative findings may help students reflect on preconceived stereotypes; therefore, affecting their attitudes toward the homelessness.

Surviving Violence in Everyday Life: A Communicative Approach to Homelessness

In this narrative review, the author synthesizes the literature on homelessness across various disciplines (e.g., public health, social work, sociology, and communication) to demonstrate how the experiences of homelessness can be created, maintained, and reinforced through communication, including interpersonal interactions and public discourse. By conceptualizing homelessness as a culturally constructed and socially situated phenomenon, the author examines (a) the complex conceptualization of homelessness, (b) everyday violence faced by people who are homeless, and (c) coping strategies of people who are homeless. In summary, homelessness is a complex social phenomenon, involving tensions between individuals, families, and social systems, all of which are situated in the larger sociocultural and sociopolitical contexts of a specific time and place.