Street Outreach Workers’ Understanding and Experience of Working with Chronically Homeless Populations

Lee, Wonhyung; Donaldson, Linda Plitt

doi:10.1080/10875549.2018.1460737

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…In attempting to leverage preexisting trust with potential vaccine recipients, CHWs described the importance of building trusting relationships within the outreach teams. 27 They were careful to ensure that PAs felt included, accepted, supported, and had opportunities for team leadership. This attention to intra-team dynamics resulted in mentorship opportunities and learning for the CHWs, consistent with other research on peer support models for providing health services within homeless communities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community Health Worker Perspectives on Engaging Unhoused Peer Ambassadors for COVID-19 Vaccine Outreach in Homeless Encampments and Shelters

et al. 2022

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Background COVID-19 vaccination is a priority for people experiencing homelessness. However, there are barriers to vaccine access driven in part by mistrust towards clinicians and healthcare. Community health workers (CHWs) and Peer Ambassadors (PAs) may be able to overcome mistrust in COVID-19 vaccine outreach. An unhoused PA program for COVID-19 vaccine outreach by CHWs was implemented in Los Angeles using a participatory academic-community partnership. Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate CHW perspectives on an unhoused PA COVID-19 vaccine outreach program in Los Angeles. Design This study used a participatory community conference and qualitative focus groups to understand CHW perspectives on the PA program. The one-day conference was held in November 2021. Participants Of the 42 conference participants, 19 CHWs participated in focus groups for two-way knowledge exchange between CHWs and researchers. Approach Four focus groups were held during the conference, with 4-6 CHWs per group. Each group had a facilitator and two notetakers. Focus group notes were then analyzed using content analysis to derive categories of findings. CHWs reviewed the qualitative analysis to ensure that findings represented their experiences with the PA program. Key Results The five categories of findings from focus groups were as follows: (1) PAs were effective liaisons to their peers to promote COVID-19 vaccines; (2) CHWs recognized the importance of establishing genuine trust and equitable working relationships within CHW/PA teams; (3) there were tradeoffs of integrating unhoused PAs into the existing CHW workflow; (4) CHWs had initial misgivings about the research process; and (5) there were lingering questions about the ethics of “exploiting” the invaluable trust unhoused PAs have with unhoused communities. Conclusions CHWs were in a unique position to empower unhoused PAs to take a leadership role in reaching their peers with COVID-19 vaccines and advocate for long-term employment and housing needs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community Health Worker Perspectives on Engaging Unhoused Peer Ambassadors for COVID-19 Vaccine Outreach in Homeless Encampments and Shelters

et al. 2022

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“…The existing literature shows that people sleeping rough disengage with outreach when the services it offers are misaligned with people's needs/preferences (Kryda & Compton, ). Likewise, street outreach is ineffective when service receipt is conditional on behaviour change (Jost et al, ; Lee & Donaldson, ), or simply when outreach is a pathway into shelter accommodation that many people sleeping rough assess as dangerous and undesirable (Stuart, ). Although the service is not an Indigenous‐controlled entity, the Indigenous staff members providing services are consistent with best practices in engaging Indigenous people in healthcare (Davy et al, ) and likely contributed to large number of Indigenous people who engaged with and obtained housing through the model.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Compared to people in shelters or who access services through clinics and referrals, people sleeping rough are the most underserved (Lettner, Doan, & Miettinen, ). Furthermore, chronic rough sleeping exacerbates disengagement from outreach services (Lee & Donaldson, ). People living on the streets avoid outreach because outreach workers fail to deliver on promises and are seen to represent a system that requires medical compliance as a condition of accessing resources (Jost, Levitt, & Porcu, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for an integrated healthcare and psychosocial multidisciplinary model to address rough sleeping

Parsell

Clarke

Vorsina

2019

Health Soc Care Community

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People who sleep rough/experience unsheltered homelessness face barriers accessing mainstream healthcare and psychosocial services. The barriers to service access exacerbate poor health, which in turn create additional challenges for rough sleepers to access health and psychosocial services, including stable housing. The study presents descriptive statistics to identify housing outcomes of people working with a Multidisciplinary Model that comprises integrated healthcare and psychosocial support, and qualitative data with clients and service providers to investigate how the Model is experienced and delivered in practice. Fieldwork was conducted between December 2016 and March 2018 with the Multidisciplinary Team operating in Cairns, in the far north of Australia. Qualitative data are drawn from in‐depth interviews with 26 rough sleepers and 33 health and psychosocial service providers from the Multidisciplinary Team and the wider service system. Descriptive statistics show that 67% of clients who were sleeping rough were supported to immediately access stable housing, and at the end of the program, all clients remained housed. The qualitative findings illustrated how integrated healthcare and psychosocial outreach enabled people sleeping rough to overcome barriers they experienced accessing mainstream healthcare and other services. With the benefit of healthcare, people felt sufficiently well to engage with the psychosocial service providers to have their housing and other psychosocial needs addressed. This article demonstrates how individual responsibility for and control over healthcare is not only a matter of the individual, but also a matter requiring systems change and the active provision of resources to cater for the constraints and opportunities present in people's immediate environments.

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“…This study is guided by the theory of social welfare which was postulated by Amartya Sen in the 1970s. Lee, Wonhyung;Donaldson, & Linda Plitt (2018) stated that the theory emphasizes the role of interest groups in defining social welfare and provides an explanation of why some groups remain marginal to the welfare enterprise. Marco & Van Leeuwen (2016) explained that social welfare theory carries two assumptions: that freedom to achieve wellbeing is of primary moral importance; and that freedom to achieve well-being must be understood in terms of people with capabilities.…”

Section: Theoretical Imperativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Glivet, Bassuk, Elstad, Kenney, Jassil and Lauren (2014) opined that an outreach is the activity of providing services to any population that might not otherwise have access to those services. In the views of Lee, Wonhyung and Plitt (2018), the key component of an outreach is that the group providing it is not stationary, but mobile; in other words, it involves meeting someone in need of an outreach service at the location where they are usually accessible. Compared with traditional service providers, outreach services are provided closer to where people may reside, efforts are very often voluntary, and have fewer, if any, enforceable obligations (Glivet et al 2014).…”

Section: The Effectiveness Of Outreach Strategies In Enhancing the We...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Strengthening Faith-Based Organisational Strategies to enhance the welfare of street children in Uganda

Ojok

Obici

Mwesigwa

2022

IJCRS

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Purpose: The study aimed to unpack the effectiveness of FBOS in enhancing the WSC in Uganda. Methodology: This study took a literature review of available an obtainable source namely books, peer-reviewed journals, annual reports, statistical abstracts to analyse the effectiveness of FBOS. Findings: Results suggest that the effectiveness of FBOS in WSC can straightforwardly be enhanced by putting greater attention on the preventive strategies, rehabilitation strategies, outreach strategies and collaborative strategies. These have proved to be very effective in several parts of the world, and especially, countries whose conditions appear to be similar to those of Uganda. Conclusion: The different analyses extracted is significant in bringing the ideas of operation of FBOS such as prevention means, rehabilitation, collaboration and outreach programmes which are all meant to enhance the welfare of street children. Recommendation: This study encourages the government of Uganda to identify feasible means that can boost the ability of households to access better household needs such as feeding, shelter, social protection to children, meaningful education, and essential healthcare. Unique contribution to policy and/or practice: This study is expected to facilitate policy makers, especially those working with urban councils, to evolve practical policies that can allow them deal with the modern challenge of street children.

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Street Outreach Workers’ Understanding and Experience of Working with Chronically Homeless Populations

Cited by 16 publications

References 24 publications

Community Health Worker Perspectives on Engaging Unhoused Peer Ambassadors for COVID-19 Vaccine Outreach in Homeless Encampments and Shelters

Community Health Worker Perspectives on Engaging Unhoused Peer Ambassadors for COVID-19 Vaccine Outreach in Homeless Encampments and Shelters

Evidence for an integrated healthcare and psychosocial multidisciplinary model to address rough sleeping

Strengthening Faith-Based Organisational Strategies to enhance the welfare of street children in Uganda

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