Un/Helpful Help and Its Discontents: Peer Researchers Paying Attention to Street Life Narratives to Inform Social Work Policy and Practice

Homeless persons' experiences of health‐ and social care: A systematic integrative review

“…Twenty‐two studies relevant to our aim and research questions were included in the review, 11 quantitative (Asmoredjo, Beijersbergen, & Wolf, ; Baggett, O'Connell, Singer, & Rigotti, ; Hwang et al, ; Jenkins & Parylo, ; Kertesz et al, ; van Laere, de Wit, & Klazinga, ; Robbins, Wenger, Lorvick, Shiboski, & Kral, ; Uddin et al, ; Vuillermoz, Vandentorren, Brondeel, & Chauvin, ; Whelan et al, ; Zur & Jones, ), and 11 qualitative (Biederman, Gamble, Manson, & Taylor, ; Biederman, Nichols, & Lindsey, ; Bungay, ; Corrigan, Pickett, Kraus, Burks, & Schmidt, ; Gültekin, Brush, Baiardi, Kirk, & VanMaldeghem, ; Kryda & Compton, ; Martins, ; McLeod & Walsh, ; Nickasch & Marnocha, ; Rae & Rees, ; Voronka et al, ). We found no studies that described economic costs in conjunction with needs of health‐ and social care in persons experiencing homelessness.…”

“…To summarise, 11 studies were conducted in the United States (50%) (Baggett et al, ; Biederman et al, , ; Corrigan et al, ; Gültekin et al, ; Kertesz et al, ; Kryda & Compton, ; Martins, ; Nickasch & Marnocha, ; Robbins et al, ; Zur & Jones, ), five in Canada (23%) (Bungay, ; Hwang et al, ; McLeod & Walsh, ; Voronka et al, ; Whelan et al, ), two in the Netherlands (9%) (Asmoredjo et al, ; van Laere et al, ), two in the United Kingdom (9%) (Jenkins & Parylo, ; Rae & Rees, ), one in Bangladesh (4.5%) (Uddin et al, ) and one in France (4.5%) (Vuillermoz et al, ). The population foci in 12 studies (55%) were persons experiencing homelessness in general (Asmoredjo et al, ; Baggett et al, ; Biederman et al, ; Hwang et al, ; Kertesz et al, ; Kryda & Compton, ; van Laere et al, ; Martins, ; Nickasch & Marnocha, ; Rae & Rees, ; Uddin et al, ; Voronka et al, ), whereas foci in three studies, respectively, were family homelessness (14%) (Gültekin et al, ; Jenkins & Parylo, ; Vuillermoz et al, ) and homelessness among women (14%) (Biederman et al, ; Bungay, ; McLeod & Walsh, ). Other population foci (17%) were: African Americans with mental illness experiencing homelessness (Corrigan et al, ), injection drug users experiencing homelessness (Robbins et al, ), persons visiting a mobile health unit experiencing homelessness (Whelan et al, ) and persons visiting federally qualified health centres in the USA experiencing homelessness (Zur & Jones, ).…”

“…Numbers of study participants in included studies ranged between 6 (Biederman et al, ) and 1,191 (Hwang et al, ). Participants’ age was not reported in five studies (Biederman et al, ; Corrigan et al, ; Jenkins & Parylo, ; Martins, ; Voronka et al, ). Three studies used peer interviewing (participatory research) (Corrigan et al, ; Gültekin et al, ; Voronka et al, ).…”

“…Ten studies reported findings related to unhelpful relations with health‐ and social care professionals (Bungay, ; Corrigan et al, ; Gültekin et al, ; Jenkins & Parylo, ; Kryda & Compton, ; Martins, ; McLeod & Walsh, ; Nickasch & Marnocha, ; Rae & Rees, ; Voronka et al, ). Being treated with a lack of respect by health‐ or social care professionals, for example lack of caring, empathy and understanding, was described in several studies (Corrigan et al, ; Gültekin et al, ; Jenkins & Parylo, ; Martins, ; Voronka et al, ). In Bungay's qualitative study (2013), comprising field studies and interviews with 67 street‐involved women in an inner‐city area, women described experiences of being judged by appearance or previous history of mental illness, substance abuse or homeless status.…”

“…Similar findings came to light in qualitative studies by Gültekin et al () using focus groups with 13 mothers experiencing homelessness, Martin's () phenomenological study with 15 persons experiencing homelessness, the nine persons experiencing homelessness in Nickasch and Marnocha's study (2009) using grounded theory, and in Voronka et als. () exploratory study with 30 individuals experiencing homelessness. Feelings of mistrust were described by the 24 persons experiencing homelessness interviewed in Kryda and Compton's study (2009), and Martins () further described experiences of being invisible.…”