Perceptions, needs and preferences of chronic disease self‐management support among men experiencing homelessness in Montreal

Abstract

Health Services Coordinator 3 This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Smartphone Technology to Empower People Experiencing Homelessness: Secondary Analysis

“…Thus, without consistent and reliable access to communication technologies, it is nearly impossible for people experiencing homelessness to engage in this collaborative approach because of an inability to maintain contact with providers or access the required information and resources. However, our findings support earlier evidence suggesting that people experiencing homelessness perceive self-management as important as participants in this study sought to be active participants in their health care and proactively sought information about their health conditions and engaged with providers when possible [21]. Thus, when equipped with smartphone technology, participants were empowered to actively engage in self-management tasks and activities.…”

“…Thus, an important implication of the current work is the need to use asset-based approaches when working with homeless populations. Evidence reveals that people experiencing homelessness value health and understand the importance of self-management [21,22], and the resilience of people experiencing homelessness has been acknowledged by prior authors [39,40]. Capitalizing on these assets by equipping homeless populations with consistent and reliable tools for communication, access to information, and transportation could yield important benefits, including a sense of security and autonomy that can empower people experiencing homelessness to navigate the context of homelessness and reassert control over their health and lives.…”

“…Given that self-management requires planning ahead, dedicated resources, and access to information, it is not surprising that homelessness poses unique barriers to successful self-management. For example, people experiencing homelessness have described poor sleeping conditions, limited food choices, limited income, and a lack of access to storage as barriers to self-management [21].…”

“…To the extent that self-management has been investigated among people experiencing homelessness, outcomes are encouraging [22][23][24]. In addition, Merdsoy et al [21] explored the perceptions, needs, and preferences for self-management among men experiencing homelessness. They found that the majority of participants perceived self-management as important, but complex challenges related to homelessness, including lack of social support and limited access to communication technology, dictated unique self-management support needs [21].…”

The chronic disease Self‐Management Programme: A phenomenological study for empowering vulnerable patients with chronic diseases included in the EFFICHRONIC project

“…Indeed, a positive transformation of the experience was observed: ‘loss of self‐esteem’ was replaced by ‘pride’ and ‘a sense of self‐efficacy’, social exclusion by ‘a sense of belonging to a community of peers’, the feeling of being diminished by the perception of ‘vitality’ and the lack of knowledge by ‘a need to learn’. Actually, this ‘community of peers’ created a break in social isolation, enabled a reconstruction of personal identity, built confidence and encouraged an understanding of the other, with a feeling of usefulness along the principles of peer support, as in Merdsoy's study 50 of Canadian homeless people.…”