GRAPH BY COMMONWEALTH FUND
The Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) page on homelessness and health says that “Barriers to health care and social services and staying in congregate shelters means that people experiencing homelessness have a higher risk for infectious and non-infectious diseases”. This includes mental disorders like anxiety, depression, PTSD, and infectious diseases like Tuberculosis, COVID-19, and hepatitis C and B. This is to say nothing about the environmental stressors these people deal with, such as physical violence, sexual violence, and Theft (Both from random people and street “Cleaners”). It’s a hard knock life.
This has been a problem for decades but, I think after the COVID-19 Pandemic and the threats to both medical research and healthcare affordability brought by our current administration, has made the people of the US start to focus on the state of America’s healthcare system. A 2024 study by the Commonwealth Fund found that Americans have the shortest lives with the most avoidable deaths of any developed country's healthcare system.
This leaves the question of what those without healthcare do when they live in a country with a terrible healthcare system, which is too expensive for everyone. The answer is their best. Which is unfortunately not nearly enough. In the Health publication Public Health by The Royal Society for Public Health, vision, voice, and practice, one woman reported being prescribed methadone which requires constant refrigeration, but as she put it “if you don't have a home you haven't got a fridge…” this was a common issue with the homeless population with them listing a lack of proper storage, knowledge, support, or just trust in the system as barriers to taking their medication. Not to mention that anything that involves sterile components, such as needles, is impossible for a homeless person adhere to due to them not being able to even keep themselves clean consistently. Does this mean that it's hopeless? That we have to live with the sick lining the streets, and no hope for a solution?
Well The Royal society for Public Health says “Previous prospective evaluation conducted with homeless individuals has shown that access to temporary homeless shelters can lead to improvements in the health status and access to care during their time in such accomodation” With them adding “Similar improvement in outcomes has been shown across diverse areas, such as substance abstinence and reduction in risk taking behaviours, especially when supportive services are offered on site, for example for counseling or provision of regular meals”. The answer is the same as the care your parents gave you when you were a kid: a clean body, a warm meal, and plenty of rest. Many of our homeless population are also disabled or, at the very least, disadvantaged in these things. Which is why we as a society need to remember to hold Empathy above all else. It’s easy to blame the poor and sick for the problems of society, but they aren’t the problem; they are the symptom. When healthcare fails to care for one of us, it fails all of us, which is why we should work to improve it. Go to your local town hall and find out what health initiatives your community is taking for the less fortunate, call your representatives and ask them how they are feeling about things like socialised healthcare, or advocate for why healthcare is a human right, not a privilege. Whatever you do, do it together with your community, because a house divided cannot stand alone.
Contact an official HERE
READ the Royal Society for Public health's article HERE
LEARN how America’s healthcare system falters with this great study by the Commonwealth Fund HERE
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