The Homeless Hub: Canadian Homelessness Research Library

The Homeless Hub
Canadian Homelessness Research Library
http://www.homelesshub.ca

"The Homeless Hub is an innovative research library and information center focusing on homelessness issues in Canada. Building on the success of the Canadian Conference on Homelessness, held at York University (2005), the Homeless Hub represents a new approach to sharing information and research on homelessness. We strongly believe that evidence-based research can and should have an impact on decision-making and solutions to homelessness, through helping to educate the public, and to inform policy and practice at all levels of government and in the social, health care and housing sectors."

Family Violence and Homelessness: A Review of the Literature [PDF] is available at the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence (NCFV)

For a free, print version, please visit the NCFV website, Family Violence publications section and use the shopping cart feature to place an order.

For links to additional articles on family violence and homelessness, visit the Homeless Hub – Canadian Homelessness Research Library at: http://www.homelesshub.ca/hh/default.cfm?incfile=hub

Summer '07 issue of "HIV/AIDS Prevention Resources for Educators" newsletter is out

The summer issue of HIV/AIDS Prevention Resources for Educators: Reaching Students with Special Learning Needs newsletter from the BC Coalition of People with Disabilities' AIDS & Disability Action Program is hot off the press! If you subscribe to the paper copy, you'll be receiving your issue soon. If you'd like to subscribe (free in Canada), just let us know.

In this issue ...

• The Role of Schools in Addressing Tobacco by Dan Reist
• Revision of Being Sexual series by SIECCAN
• Questions & Answers from the SHADE (Q&A from sexual health educator Margaret Newbury Jones)
• No Link to Promiscuity Found In Youths Using Condoms
• Taking Action: Understanding Advocacy by Darryl Quantz
• Victims Vulnerable to Re-victimization
• 5th Annual Access to Health Awards
• Tip of the Iceberg: Young Men Who Have Sex with Men, the Internet, and HIV Risk
• Report on Health of BC's Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Teens: McCreary Centre Society Study Looks at Violence and Health Issues
• Training Opportunities
• Suprises in BC's Street Youth Study

The BC Coalition of People with Disabilities' AIDS & Disability Action Program also publishes HIV prevention information in plain language, audio and Braille formats. Call 604-875-0188 (toll-free 1-877-232-7400) or email wdi@bccpd.bc.ca for details.

Surprises in BC's Street Youth Study

Published in HIV/AIDS Prevention Resources for Educators: Reaching Students with Special Learning Needs (Summer 2007) (contact the Wellness & Disability Initiative for free subscription)

Surprises in BC's Street Youth Study

One in three BC street youth living in abandoned buildings, cars or on community streets report they still attend school, according to a new survey whose findings show resilience in the face of rejection and violence.

Called Against the Odds, the study offers a profile of more than 760 street-involved youth—adolescents who have been without stable housing or who are active in street life—aged 12-18 who live in nine communities throughout BC. Conducted between October and December 2006 by Vancouver-based McCreary Centre Society and University of British Columbia Nursing Associate Professor Elizabeth Saewyc, and with the help of street-involved youth and social support agencies, it offers regional data as a follow-up to a 2000 study.

"Many of the findings may be surprising to communities," says principal investigator Elizabeth Saewyc, an associate professor in the School of Nursing and research director for McCreary Centre Society. "These youth have faced shocking levels of rejection and violence, both within their families and on the street. But despite having the odds stacked against them, most of them are amazingly strong and resilient, working hard, attending school and looking for opportunities to improve their lives."

Key findings include:
--One in three youth still attended school while staying in an abandoned building, tent, car, squat or on the street.
--Aboriginal youth were disproportionately represented among street youth, with sharp increases since 2000. For example, in Vancouver the percentage rose from 37 to 65 percent and in Prince Rupert from 76 to 88 percent.
--Gay lesbian, bisexual and teens were also over-represented: one in three females and one in 10 males identified as gay, lesbian and bisexual.
--One in three youth reported they were working at a legal job.
--Thirteen percent of youth were parents, and more than one-third of these parents' children lived with them.
--57 percent of females and 15 percent of males reported sexual abuse, either in their family, outside their family, or both. More than one in three of the youth reported they had been sexually exploited.
--More than one in four youth had been exposed to, and used, alcohol or marijuana before the age of 11, often before becoming street-involved.
--Contrary to findings from 2000, BC does not appear to be absorbing large numbers of youth from outside BC. 84 percent of youth in the survey were from communities across BC.
--Youth in each of the nine communities surveyed identified job training and shelter as the most needed services.

"This is not just a Vancouver study. These problems exist everywhere," Saewyc says. "We spoke with youth in nine communities across the province, and asked where they'd come from. Most of them are from BC, and many of them had lived in several places within BC before their current location. Nearly half were surveyed in the same community where they'd lived before becoming street-involved."

Researchers' recommendations include support for struggling families, especially parents of younger teens. Substance abuse treatment, mental health services, safe and supportive housing, and job training are also needed. In addition, they recommend that Aboriginal organizations be given resources to offer safe housing and other supportive services to youth.

The research study may be found at The McCreary Centre Society website: http://www.mcs.bc.ca/.

Feeling "Unwelcome" a Barrier to Homeless Seeking Health Care: Toronto Study

Homeless people who have felt unwelcomed during past health care encounters are more likely to avoid health care institutions, according to a new study by St. Michael’s Hospital researchers.

The qualitative study of 17 homeless men and women at five shelters in Toronto found respondents often reported that unwelcoming experiences prompted strong emotional responses, making it less likely they seek health care in the future.

“The preliminary findings offer a new and unexplored way of thinking about patient-health professional interactions,” study author and St. Michael’s Hospital researcher Dr. Stephen Hwang explained. “While the concept of unwelcomeness being tied to accessibility of health care has been relatively unexplored, it is no less important.”

Following audiotaped in-depth interviews of study subjects, researchers found most participants perceived their experiences of unwelcomeness as acts of discrimination based on homelessness and low social class, lead author Chuck Wen explained.

“Participants characterized these health care experiences as dehumanizing,” he said. “The patients conveyed a sense that the health care provider reduced them to an object, did not empathize with them, ignored or failed to listen to them, and felt brushed aside, rushed, and treated rudely.”

Intense emotional responses associated with these feelings of unwelcomeness have created for some individuals a strong distrust of health care workers and avoidance of health care institutions, St. Michael’s Hospital researcher Pamela Hudak said.

“The results of the study encourage health-care professionals to approach each patient with openness and receptiveness,” she said. “Welcomeness brings to mind the idea of hospitality, a concept that differs from patient satisfaction and that could usefully be incorporated by health care professionals as part of their stance towards not only homeless people but patients in general.”

The study was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.