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This is the time of the year when I buy about $100 worth of $5 each McDonalds gift cards.
When I see homeless folks out begging for money, I hand them these cards. While it is not the end all be all to get them by, I am ensuring that they are not spending it on drugs or alcohol, and I am especially welcoming that if the cold is severe, McD's is open 24/7, on every other corner, and they can get a hot meal (albeit junk food) and a place to hang out during the extreme cold. A little warm meal and shelter from the cold for a few bucks is not a big deal, but guess with prices going up, gonna probably have to do the $10 cards instead soon. Just an idea....
I worked with homeless people for years via a community mental health program. The sad fact is that most of them have mental health issues that in previous times would have landed them in a mental health facility.
Now, thanks to deinstitutionalization they are left to wander the world on their own, with the occasional psych tech urging them to take their medication.
When we closed the state psychiatric hospitals, it was with the understanding that community mental services would support these folks in living in the community. Funding has been minimal and services have never been able to meet the need.
About half those in jail actually belong in a mental health facility. Jails have picked up where psych hospitals left off.
Instead of shaming the homeless for the strange choices they make, we ought to be ashamed of how we care for those with mental health issues.
Very true. I have worked as an RN in a large state mental institution and was a member of the pre-disharge team. Many of these people were ill-prepared to live independently. Psychotropic drugs helped them - when they took them in a controlled setting. I have seen patients plead to not be released.
It's a tragic situation.
Many homeless people are also former foster children. They are asked to leave their homes at 18. With no job skills and no family support.
All of these people are deserving of mercy and compassion. As a society, we can do better than this.
Interesting post. When I was getting my BS in Psych was right about the time that they were going to let all these mentally ill people out of state hospitals because it was a impingement of their rights.
When the state hospitals were closing, the anticipation of the support services needed was extremely short-sighted, and the "plan" neglected to admit that some people, no matter how advanced the psych meds, will never be able to live on their own.
And of course now, 40 years later, funding for services is cut at every legislative cycle. People who really need close supervision are living in group homes supervised by poorly trained people earning minimum wage, and not enough of them. And when the funding is cut further, and the group homes close, people are left to their own devices.
There has never been that much benevolence for the mentally ill.
Costs were not escalating. Antipsychotic medications arrived and many thought that it would be more humane and cheaper to have them live in the community. The promised community support service were minimal at best and funds cut at every opportunity.
I don't know how we can do this and continue to call ourselves a Christian nation.
"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in."
Mathew 25:35
I agree with you and with the words of Jesus. Jimmy Carter said to those who want to say we are a "Christian Nation" that we can't approach that ideal when we ignore the poor, homeless. hungry and needy.
Now, i do not think we are a "Christian Nation". Neither does President Carter. However, I am a Christian and my values include Jesus' concern for the poor, the insane, the hungry and the disenfranchised.
I hold myself to Christian standards. Instead of judging others, I help those that need help.
It's the very least that I can do.
We have so many empty asylums in this country that could be rehabilitated to serve the mentally ill. This would also provide jobs to many Americans. Construction, dietary, maintenance, and health care.
In addition, there are empty homes that could be rehabbed by more functional people as permanent residences. I forget the amount of usable empty houses - but it is huge. Not every homeless family is capable of living independently, but many are. They could buy abandoned homes with sweat equity.
Some would be safer in psychiatric facilities. Others would do fine with community support services, respite centers, apartment buildings with support services available when needed.
But to just turn them loose with a $700/month SSI check, then tsk tsk when they make poor choices...
Very true. I have worked as an RN in a large state mental institution and was a member of the pre-disharge team. Many of these people were ill-prepared to live independently. Psychotropic drugs helped them - when they took them in a controlled setting. I have seen patients plead to not be released.
It's a tragic situation.
Many homeless people are also former foster children. They are asked to leave their homes at 18. With no job skills and no family support.
All of these people are deserving of mercy and compassion. As a society, we can do better than this.
We abandon our foster children and many of them do end up homeless.
Some would be safer in psychiatric facilities. Others would do fine with community support services, respite centers, apartment buildings with support services available when needed.
But to just turn them loose with a $700/month SSI check, then tsk tsk when they make poor choices...
I don't know many homeless but I do know street people they are resourceful
And every time u drop 4k a month for a place to sleep and push yourself to an early grave in a rat race dog eat dog job with a greedy wife a 3 lazy kids
That is proof that he is not so dumb
One of the things I learned about these psych patients was that the general rule is, that if they have been in a facility for 2 years, they will never learn to be able to be self sufficient and manage their life, and earn money the way most "normal people do.
What I can't understand is why the govt. can't set up some kind of housing for these folks. Kind of like an old style very basic college dorm. Gang showers and bathrooms. Women in one building, men in another. No visitors in their room or on the floor. Each person gets a small room to themselves, like the size of a jail cell, so that they can have a very small place, a dorm size fridge, small TV, and that's home. You'd have to have rules, and if they broke the rules, they get thrown out for 30 days. Something like that wouldn't necessarily have to be wildly expensive. Any welfare or SSDI would go first to pay their rent. I don't know if it would work? Anyone know of something like this for the homeless other than a shelter where they throw them out every morning?
The National Coalition for Homeless People reports that approximately 700 homeless people die a year from hypothermia. To give some perspective on that, in 2010 32,999 died in auto accidents and 25,692 died of the results of drug and alcohol use.
Every death diminishes us and, in theory, many are preventable. But they occur nonetheless.
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