Verified Document

Empowering Homeless Youth Finding A Way Back Research Paper

Abstract Much of the research that shaped this paper reflected how the most functional adults were able to make the transition from adolescence to adulthood with the emotional and financial support of their parents. Homeless youths don’t have such pillars to rely upon and if they’re going to successfully transition into productive, stable adults free of psychological scars, drug addiction or other destructive tendencies, there needs to be a social support entity who is able to fill in some of these parental gaps and offer these young people protection, guidance and support. This paper also looks at the risk factors in connection with LGBTQ youth who are often kicked out of their familial homes, and who are subjected to more health risks and dangers on the streets and in the foster care and shelter system. This paper examines the more common traumas that face homeless youth and the best structural components of social work to confront these traumas. Finally, this paper examines some of the methodologies used to address the nuances of this complex problem. For example, spiritual development and psychological treatment can help young people build internal reserves of resilience and coping mechanisms to help them deal with the inevitable setbacks and uncertainty of life. Much of this research will orbit around the work done at ACR Health for the good and improvement of youth homelessness. ACR Health is a non-profit, community centered organization that offers support services for people with a range of diseases and works to provide targeted prevention of STDs and offer sexual health services to individuals.

Introduction

It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact number of homeless youths that emerge on the streets each year, but the number is likely between 1.5 and 2 million (Dworsky, 2010). For some of these youths, the homelessness is just a temporary episode, and for others, it’s an ongoing fight for survival. The manner in which these young people end up on the streets is as equally diverse as they are: some of them run away, often running from abusive homes, or are forced out—this is how many pregnant or LGBTQ teens end up on the street. Others are homeless because they’ve aged out of the foster care system or out of juvenile hall (Dworsky, 2010). The experiences that homeless youths have on the streets are as diverse as the reasons that brought them there. Understanding the background of homeless youths is crucial in order to illuminate the best ways to help them. This paper will look at the multi-faceted needs of homeless youth and how ACR attempts to meet those needs. Some of the most basic tactics involve assessing if there can be any familial reconciliation, and in many cases it is in the best interest of the youths involved if there isn’t such a resolution. This paper will explore how stability is created and maintained for these young people, and the type of goal setting that is involved in order to help them make the transition to stable adulthood. Exploring these goals and intention was a massive part of this research project. The bulk of this project involved interviewing and shadowing Tyler Gilyward, the director of Youth Housing at ACR. Mr. Gilyward was able to aptly illuminate for me many of the obstacles that ACR has in helping homeless young people exit homelessness permanently and demonstrate through real life examples how the company attempts to navigate many of those examples. This project that was conducted with the help and insight from Mr. Gilyward was able to illuminate some of the nuances of more theoretical musings on this subject.

Agency Name and Description

The agency in question that was studied both in person and through research goes by the name of ACR Health: AIDS Community Resources. The mission of the organization is to provide health services to all people suffering from chronic diseases, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, income with a focus on those suffering from HIV/AIDS in the northern counties of New York State, such as St. Lawrence, Oswego, Oneida and other northern counties close to Canada and Vermont (ACR Health, 2018). Aside from working with people who have HIV/AIDS, they also work with people who are struggling to deal with diabetes, obesity, heart disease, drug addiction, mental illnesses and asthma with the ultimate goal of helping individuals to effectively manage their conditions so that positive health manifestations occur and remain consistently. Another pillar of the work that ACR does is that it helps guide and empower individuals to make better decisions...

Parts of this document are hidden

View Full Document
svg-one

This is an aspect of the work that they do via specific STD and unwanted pregnancy prevention and a component of the sexual health services they offer to individuals. Ultimately the organization endeavors to bolster the wellness of all who need such help in their communities and to be the pillar that assists people in achieving that (ACR Health, 2018). As Tyler Gilyward, the director of Youth Housing, explains, a lot of the young people they work with come from homes and families that have perpetuated a legacy of neglect. Many of the youths they work with don’t know about basic things they’re supposed to do to stay healthy and to ward off disease, such as brushing their teeth twice a day (T. Gilyward, Personal Communication, February 13, 2018). “It may sound silly, but many of these young people weren’t taught the basic health behaviors that would keep them safe and prevent disease. So a lot of what we do is we help to bridge so many of the gaps in that their parents left during their development” (T. Gilyward, Personal Communication, February 13, 2018).
Principles and Goals of Case Management

Effective case management has long been connected with reaping positive outcomes with homeless youth. However, in 2018 effective case management has to have an electronic component, particularly when dealing with youths (Bender et al., 2015). According to Gilyward, the team at Youth Housing does incorporate an electronic case management component to their work as sometimes the teenagers have logistical barriers that stop them from showing up at in-person meetings (Bender et al., 2015), and because communicating over electronic technology is second nature to these youths. Tyler Gilyward explains, that when funding allows it, the youths receive prepaid cell phones and a case manager who offers four electronic case management sessions every two weeks over a 12-week period. It’s up to the case managers to document how often the youths were active with their phones and responding to calls, emails and texts. Youths generally needed consistent engagement and prodding from case managers to respond, but they generally rate electronic case management in a very positive way. Gilyward explains that teens were most communicative over texting and was very excited about the implications of these results for the future of case management.

In regards to the type of case management model ACR uses, Gilyward described it as “…a hybrid between the Broker Case Management Model and the Clinical Case Management Model, depending on the needs of the individual youth. Some teenagers just need a case manager to collaborate services for them through a range of social service avenues. In these cases, it’s enough to just evaluate their needs, make appropriate referrals and observe the treatment they receive over a period of time. On the other hand, other youths require more from us, and that’s when we incorporate more of the Clinical Case Management Model. This is useful to us as it is more centered on engaging the youths in regular therapeutic interventions such as psychotherapy and crisis interventions” (T. Gilyward, Personal Communication, February 13, 2018). Gilyward went onto explain that they were working with a homeless youth who was HIV positive and engaged in behaviors of self-harm such as cutting. He wasn’t able to promise that he’d be able to stop his self-harming behaviors, not even for a day; the youth said that they were too soothing to him and helped him feel calm. Hence, given the circumstances it was important to make a concerted and lasting crisis intervention. In the case of this youth, he had to be admitted to the hospital for monitoring for a few days, while the best psychotherapists experienced with HIV/AIDS patients met with him, until they were confident that they could trust he would not engage in self-harm. This was achieved in part, by connecting the youth with a team of social support avenues, aside from his case manager, and ensuring that he felt totally supported.

Of course, such a case is extreme. As Gilyward explained, much of case management is very individualized. Each teenager is paired with a case manager and together as a team they help the teen create a self-sufficiency plan or an individual action plan as a result of their strengths and objectives (Dworsky, 2010). For example, for some students a major goal is getting their high school diploma, whereas for others it’s finding…

Sources used in this document:

References

ACR Health. (2018). ACR Health. Retrieved from http://acrhealth.org/about/who-we-are

Bender, K., Schau, N., Begun, S., Haffejee, B., Barman-Adhikari, A., & Hathaway, J. (2015). Electronic case management with homeless youth. Evaluation and program planning, 50, 36-42.

Dworsky, A. (2010). Supporting homeless youth during the transition to adulthood: Housing-based independent living programs. The Prevention Researcher, 17(2), 17-21.

Johnson, R. L., Botwinick, G., Sell, R. L., Martinez, J., Siciliano, C., Friedman, L. B., ... & Bell, D. (2003). The utilization of treatment and case management services by HIV-infected youth. Journal of Adolescent Health, 33(2), 31-38.

Lacay, S. (2016, September 25). Breaking Boundaries With Empathy: How the Therapeutic Alliance Can Defy Client/Worker Differences. Retrieved from http://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/practice/Breaking_Boundaries_With_Empathy%3A_How_the_Therapeutic_Alliance_Can_Defy_Client-Worker_Differences/

Mastropieri, B., Schussel, L., Forbes, D., & Miller, L. (2015). Inner resources for survival: Integrating interpersonal psychotherapy with spiritual visualization with homeless youth. Journal of religion and health, 54(3), 903-921.

Miller, A. (2013, March 4). What Is the Role of the Case Worker or Manager? Retrieved from https://careertrend.com/role-case-worker-manager-5063.html

NASW. (n.d.). Code of Ethics. Retrieved from https://www.socialworkers.org/about/ethics/code-of-ethics

Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Substance Abuse and Homeless Youth
Words: 6346 Length: 20 Document Type: Research Paper

For some, there will be a denial and minimization of the substance habit as being inconsequential, purely recreational or extremely intermittent. This response is akin to the young adult asserting that there is no problem. For other homeless youths, their drug or alcohol habit maybe viewed as a form of survival: these drugs help these teenagers bear life on the street. In that sense the substance is attributed as

Foster Care Community Assessment: Foster Care Youth
Words: 2774 Length: 8 Document Type: Essay

Foster Care Community Assessment: Foster Care Youth Needs What is a community assessment? A community assessment is a process by which a collaborative partnership gathers information on the current strengths, concerns, needs, and conditions of children, families, and the community. The information comes from many sources -- especially parents and family members -- and is elicited by many techniques, including interviews, focus groups, and scanning demographic data collected by local agencies. Because

Transitioning Youth Foster Care Children
Words: 1240 Length: 5 Document Type: Research Paper

D., further discusses the social implications of foster care on the overall financial education and life-skill ability of aged out foster care children. According to his research, the average income of an aging-out youth is less than $6,000, which is drastically less than the federal poverty amount of $7,890. This author proposes that the only means of ending the cycle and allowing foster care children the opportunity to gain the

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender
Words: 4659 Length: 18 Document Type: Term Paper

In their second survey, the authors found that the majority of students felt that PROJECT 10 had been positive and beneficial - not merely for LGBT students, but for the overall educational environment. This resonates with one of the conclusions reached by Sedgwick (1993) when she offered her first class in gay and lesbian studies at Amherst College in 1986. While she initially designed the course for the five to

Parenting Program for Women and
Words: 41621 Length: 150 Document Type: Thesis

There are many of these individuals, and it is time that this is changed. Parents often look away from these kinds of problems, or they spend their time in denial of the issue because they feel that their child will not be harmed by parental involvement with drugs or alcohol. Some parents have parents that were/are addicts themselves, and some are so busy with their lives that they do not

Effects of Early Childhood Sexual Abuse and Involvement in Prostitution...
Words: 16088 Length: 30 Document Type:

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE ON WOMEN INVOLVED IN PROSTITUTION Conceptual Paper Millions of children around the globe are sexually abused or exploited. This paper includes several descriptions of studies that relate sexual abuse during childhood to delinquency later in life. There are several difficulties with methodology and definitions that are inherent in the mentioned studies. These challenges make it somewhat difficult to compare and interpret the findings of the study. A framework

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now