Essay On Homeless Mentally Ill Population

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The Homeless, Mentally Ill Population-Are We Really Helping This Vulnerable Population?? Lorena Lee, R. N. NUR/440 October 10, 2011 Priscilla Aylesworth, RN, MSN The Homeless, Mentally Ill Population-Are We Really Helping This Vulnerable Population?? As I began to research for this presentation, I had to take a good long look at myself and how I thought about the homeless, mentally ill population. I knew how most of society sees them, but how did I see them? In the general society, we avert our eyes or roll them when seeing a homeless person. It can even be worse when they are mentally ill. When I live in Columbus, Ohio there was this one homeless man everyone knew. He was called “Rooster” because he would start crowing for no reason, or so most thought. He was dirty, smelled bad, and would talk to himself. Teenagers would pick on him to make him crow, thinking this was funny. I was always told he was harmless. He ended up killing a teenager that tormented him. He did not know better, he believed that he was being threatened and was afraid, he struck out at what was threatening him. He went to jail, the teenager lost his…show more content…
They have to protect themselves and what few belongings they have. Often when they are brought into a facility, their belongings are lost because the police, case manager or whoever did not see the belongings as property but as garbage. Through discussion I saw my audience soften and became more compassionate and understanding. By the time the presentation was complete, I began to see changed attitudes and compassion toward the homeless, mentally ill. We discussed how programs could help them and what type of programs could be developed or funded to bring better care and understanding, how could they help with the existing programs. We discussed volunteering, donating needed items and time at such places as the Boise Rescue

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