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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Old and sleeping rough
— elderly homeless persons on the streets of Boston | | Author(s) | James J O'Connell, Jill S Roncarati, Eileen C Reilly |
| Journal title | Care Management Journals, vol 5, no 2, Summer 2004 |
| Pages | pp 101-106 |
| Source | http://www.springerpub.com |
| Keywords | Homelessness ; Social characteristics [elderly] ; Longitudinal surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Older individuals living on city streets are a unique sub-group of the homeless population. No [US] studies have been published about these older "rough sleepers" who face daunting obstacles to health care and a litany of health risks that are magnified by the physical and mental limitations of advancing years. To improve understanding of this group, the Street Team of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program prospectively followed 30 individuals aged 60+ living on Boston's streets for the four years 2000 to 2003. This cohort included 8 women and 22 men ranging in age from 60 to 82 (mean age 67). At the end of the study period, 9 had died and 6 were in nursing homes. Despite intense efforts, only 5 had found housing. Seven were still on Boston's streets after four years; and one was lost at follow-up. It was concluded that older rough sleepers have high morbidity and mortality, and pose significant challenges to programmes seeking to provide housing and supportive health care services for this vulnerable sub-group of homeless people. New and creative housing options are needed, and the delicate issues of competency and guardianship must be addressed. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-050620209 A |
| Classmark | K4A: F: 3J: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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