This specific program will target the homeless population in Alachua county specifically in Gainesville that utilize Grace Market Place and Saint Francis House. We will also offer support for those who participant by allowing health professionals (such as nurses and social workers) visit them and help in any capacity. The plan is to tackle the disparities within the Gainesville community in the homeless population. This will be achieved by providing the target population with social workers, physicians, and dietitians in order to help create goals and plans to benefit the participants. This program will aim to assist in healing past trauma within the participants and improve their quality of life. The program will provide social services with the hopes of their wellness through improving mental and physical health. All in all, the program will help with the effects of ACEs and help with the healing process for those who have suffered.
When considering trauma-informed principles that will be built into the program, the utilization of most of them will be considered and implemented.SAMHSA’s trauma-informed principles will serve as a framework and guide for this project. To start off with, safety will be the first principle to begin with. The foundation of the program will focus on providing training and educating the staff & volunteers on how to work with this specific vulnerable population. Safety plans would need to be established that will state how to lower anxiety and nervousness in the participants. For the physical location where the participants will be in, the physicians, social worker, and etc. will need to make sure that the facility is safe. Also, when the participants are speaking to staff members, staff would need to be respectful and non-judgmental. This falls along with the principle of empowerment, voice, and choice. When staff members are communicating to the participants, they would need to focus on utilizing a “person-centered, strengths-based approach” (Edwards et. al, 2020). Everyone needs to have a voice in prioritizing the community needs from the providers to the individuals the program is serving. The program will include safe ways to Moving on to collaboration and mutuality, the focus will be on properly training staff at the in trauma-informed practice. Staff members will be trained on how to understand the needs of the homeless population and how to go about with addressing those needs. In order for the program to be successful and beneficial to those it is attempting to reach, trustworthiness and transparency is vital. Staff members need to know how to take information from participants in a way that’s respectful and effective. It’s important to collect data and the information that is learned can be accessible to the public.
For the social ecological model, the project will focus on many of the levels using the CDC socioecological model, . On the individual level, this is where the program will consider the personal history factors that makes the person who they are such as their medical history (if accessible) and social history. Some factors that will be taken into consideration are socioeconomic status, substance use, age, education and/or more. The individual level was chosen for this project due to the fact that the program can implement prevention strategies that can change behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs. The project can utilize a variety of approaches such as education and offering mental health counseling. With health providers being accessible to the target population, they can better understand an individual and how to best help them. Another level to consider for this project is relationship/interpersonal. Close relationships to the participant can increase the participant’s motivation to change their behavior or may hinder their progress to change. Family members, peers, etc. can contribute by encouraging the participants to continue seeking resources from the program or they can negatively influence them in a multitude of ways. The reason this project wants to select the level of relationship/interpersonal is because the program would need to understand the influences in the participant’s life to understand how to combat any negative influences that could derail the progress being made. On the community level, the program can consider factors such as schools, work, the neighborhoods, nearest clinics/hospitals, and etc. This is important to consider because economic and housing opportunities and the local jurisdictions can impact the resources that are accessible to this population.
A public health framework will be utilized as a way to reduce the impact of ACEs in the intervention. This program will focus on the various public health levels of prevention to address these concerning concepts. Trauma and ACEs have a huge impact on individuals lives; therefore, we have to be cautious and move with care when working with a variety of individuals with this history. In terms of primary prevention, this program is able to give access to the homeless population of trainings to educate them about how ACEs are able to be preventable.
The adult homeless population often times have children that are with them through it all. With trainings that this program provides, the adults would understand better how to reduce stress and avoid trauma in their children lives. We can provide strategies on how to overcome their impediments that stem from ACEs. This program will implement and focus on tertiary prevention which is essentially the treatment aspect. This is where the program brings in clinicians care of certified social workers, nurses, and physicians. With the help of a licensed provider, the target population will be able to get treatment in mental disorders and physical impediments.
References
Liu, M., Mejia-Lancheros, C., Lachaud, J., Nisenbaum, R., Stergiopoulos, V., & Hwang, S. W. (2020). Resilience and Adverse Childhood Experiences: Associations with Poor Mental Health Among Homeless Adults. American journal of preventive medicine, 58(6), 807-816
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