Health and Physical Services for the Homeless

Human Services Intervention for the Homeless

Working with homeless people is one of the challenging tasks in the social sector. Similar to other social worker position, supporting homeless people can be very difficult and challenging because most of the homeless people are a drug addict, jobless, and suffer from mental disorders. Homelessness is a condition without having access to a regular dwelling. Thus, homeless are people who are unable to acquire safe, regular, and secure housing units. Thus, anybody cannot just work with this set of the population, social workers or other professionals ready to work with this set of people should possess interpersonal skills to work successfully with them.

The objective of this paper is to address the interpersonal skills to work homeless.

Interpersonal skills to work with Homeless

A strong communication skill is one of the interpersonal skills needed to work with homeless people. A social or health worker should be able to communicate effectively with the affected people and listen to their needs, and be able to communicate with them in a convincing manner teaching them steps they can employ to solve their problems. Ability to demonstrate a sense of caring towards homeless is another interpersonal skills ought to be developed to work with this category of people. Finfgeld-Connett, et al. (2012) argue that social service providers should be able to provide assistance for homeless in a caring manner because caring is one of the attributes of therapeutic assistance. Applicable features of caring include kindness, compassion, respects and empathy. Essentially, caring is very important given that many homeless are survivors of different forms interpersonal trauma. (Finfgeld-Connett, 2010). Moreover, caring is perceived important because it diminishes treatment barriers with reference to trust.

Moreover, providers should be able to demonstrate interpersonal trust towards homeless people to make them developing a sense of belonging. Providers should be able to demonstrate that they can be trusted before they can work effectively with homeless people. Distrust from homeless stem from the past experiences where homeless put their trust in providers who eventually fail or disappoint them. Homeless may lose interest in social service if they are blatantly mistreated. Thus, providers intending to work with homeless should be able to build trust through caring.

More importantly, providers should be able to instill hope in homeless people since many homeless finds challenging in formulating a realistic vision about their lives. Thus, providers working with homeless people should be able "to instill the belief that they are worthy of a better life, and to help them envision what their lives might realistically look like." (p 423). Care providers should also be able to instill an element of hope in the homeless. The homeless can also benefit from saving skills such as teaching them how to manage money, secure and retain a job. Each of these skill sets has positive reinforcement and results Moreover, providers can use the spiritual method to deal with hopelessness. Typically, spirituality provides homeless people a sense of hope, which they will need to improve their lives.

Personal and Professional Qualities to be successfully working with Homeless

In the United States, more than 1.5 million individuals are homeless. The reason for homeless includes insufficient public assistance funds to provide them social housing and lack of jobs making homeless people having difficulties taking steps in moving towards a positive direction. Thus, social providers should have personal counseling skills that involve the ability to convince the homeless that a change of their lifestyle could assist them coming out from their present social situation. Thus, it is essential for the provider to acquire professional skills in counseling that will assist them delivering essential counseling for homeless to make them change their way of life.

Other professional qualities are the ability to address the mental and physical health problems of homeless. Typically, physical health services include disease prevention, health promotion, rehabilitative alcohol services as well as drug abuse treatment services. (Finfgeld-Connett, 2010). Moreover, providers should be able to develop a counseling skill to assist the homeless to develop adaptive problem-solving skills, interpersonal and decision-making skills.

Homeless require differential Treatment

Moving homeless into a stable housing is challenging because many of them are alcoholic, heroin and cocaine addicts. In the United States, 82% of the homeless are addicted to at least a substance abuse. Given their special characteristics, the homeless require different treatment. Apart from the intervention of social workers, the intervention of professional services such as services of psychology, and physiatrists are required for the homeless. The intervention of child care assistance is also very critical because some homeless women are mentally deranged, and many of them are raising little children. Thus, the intervention of child care professional is very critical to teach homeless parenting skills. Thus, human services should demonstrate caring and loving attitudes towards the homeless. They should also demonstrate that they are trustworthy. Thus, individuals intending to work with homeless should go for a special training to make them developing skills to deal with homeless in the United States.

Potential challenges and Method to Overcome the Problems

Different challenges occur when addressing the problem of homeless. Inability to access high qualified mental and physical health professionals ready to work with homeless is the major homeless problems. In the United States, many highly qualified health and physical professionals prefer to work in private or other rewarding health organizations rather than working with homeless. However, the intervention of physical and mental health professionals is very critical to resolving the homeless problem

"since people who fail to resolve homelessness tend to have unstable mental health disorders, including substance abuse problems and chronic conditions such as psychosis. They are apt to access supportive services on an as-needed-basis and in a revolving door manner. Due to their mental health problems, they have conflicted feelings about using community services and living within shelters." (Finfgeld-Connett, 2010 p 466).