Homelessness people with substance abuse in Haringey - Literature review Example

In the year 2010/2011, the trend has changed as most of the households that were accepted were as a result of substances abuse with the majority of them being victims of alcohol and cocaine. Of these, 41 percent were from the black origin with those from Haringey making only 16 percent. Half of the households were observed to be from lost parents while approximately 60 % being dependant children. This alarming situation in Haringey led to the Housing Advice and Options teams to come up with measures of preventing homeless in the year 2010 and this effort has been appreciated as to have a great impact on substance abuse (Brighton 2002, p. 67) Substance abuse has remained one of the major homelessness pertinent.

Substance abuse in the recent past has strongly been associated with social bonds breakdown and loss of housing. Recent Studies indicate that substances use has proved to be prevalent in the homeless population and is regarded as one of the main homelessness pertinent. . 44 percent of the participants had received medication for substances at some point in their life. In a similar study, 550 homeless adults were examined from two different cities for substance use. The study concluded that 80 percent of the adults were found to depend on alcohol or other drugs or both.

Stahler and Cohen (2000) conducted a study on female homeless as well as runaway adolescents. The research involving 350 participants indicated that 65% used marijuana, 23 % used amphetamines while 20 % used hallucinogenis (Home Office 2002, p. 81) Alcoholism has been identified as being the most prevalent substance associated with homelessness. More than 40 percent of the homelessness reported cases in relation to substance use are mostly associated with alcoholism and a number of studies indicate that alcoholism and homelessness go hand in hand.

A study conducted involving 1300 homeless individuals showed that 23 percent had alcohol related problems this year while 44 percent had alcohol related problems in their lifetime (Hebden 2002, p. 8) More studies have been conducted in an effort to examine the co-relation between substance abuse among the youth and homelessness. A study carried out in Melbourne involving 162 homeless individuals involved examining the individuals at the onset of the study, after six month and later after a year (Salford University 2000, p. 2). The result of this study showed a low correlation between homelessness among the young and substance use.

A good number of the participants were not involved in any substance use. An article posted by Health Care for the Homeless Clinic’s Network on substance abuse and possible rehabilitation programs