CHAPTER 38: Homeless Clients Discussion

In completing the case study, students will be addressing the following learning objectives:

Discuss factors that contribute to homelessness in people with mental illness.

Discuss barriers that prevent homeless people with mental illness from receiving care measures to promote access.

1. Kevin, a 39-year-old unemployed homeless male who has paranoid schizophrenia, was brought to the psychiatric hospital by the police. Citizens called the police because Kevin was in the street directing pedestrians and traffic in opposition to the traffic lights and verbally abusing everyone who did not follow his directions. Kevin is known to the police since he is often homeless, and states that his family does not want him. Kevin also has a history of poly substance abuse with alcohol, heroin, and crack cocaine, and he has been jailed for public intoxication several times. The nursing assessment reveals that Kevin has not been taking his prescribed psychotropic medications for 3 weeks. Kevin states that he does not have any money, and he does not remember where to go for mental health care (Learning Objectives: 2)

a. What are the major factors that contribute to Kevin’s frequent homelessness?

b. What barriers does Kevin face in the receiving treatment? How can these barriers be addressed?

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.