I believe that most would assume that young adults that live on the streets of our major cities around the country, suffer from mental health related issues or drug addiction that contribute to them becoming homeless. In contrast, as research and documentaries have indicated, most young people don't suffer from a psychological or mental health problems. Issues related to their families and "home life" because of parent-child conflict, discipline problems, poor communication, poor supervision, physical and sexual abuse, lack of affection and caring, and substance abuse problems are documented as primary reasons of leaving home and living on the streets (From home to street, 2005). The choice to leave home was to escape the conditions that they were living in.
When looking at the individuals that are documented in the films "Skid Row" as well as the documentary "From home to street," there seem to be obvious similarities in both. Most of the above mentioned reasons that youth leave home and find themselves living on the streets are depicted in "Skid Row." The children. as well as the adults, in the films are in obvious need of assistance from social services to assist in providing education, food, shelter and other essential needs for survival. "Without access to social and financial support traditionally provided by families, these young people learn on that their survival is dependent on no one but themselves" (From home to street, 2005).
I hope that in the near future, we as American's can find ways to help our young people that come from broken and dysfunctional to learn to live a better life and break away from the abuse and neglect that our future has sustained.
References:
Hyde, J. (2005). From home to street: Understanding young people's transitions into homelessness. Journal of Adolescence, 28 (2), 171-83.
Film: On Skid Row-Introduction (2007).
No comments:
Post a Comment