Outreach workers' experiences in a homeless outreach project: Issues of boundaries, ethics and staff safety

Citation
D. Fisk et al., Outreach workers' experiences in a homeless outreach project: Issues of boundaries, ethics and staff safety, PSYCHIAT Q, 70(3), 1999, pp. 231-246
Citations number
21
Categorie Soggetti
Psychiatry
Journal title
PSYCHIATRIC QUARTERLY
ISSN journal
00332720 → ACNP
Volume
70
Issue
3
Year of publication
1999
Pages
231 - 246
Database
ISI
SICI code
0033-2720(199923)70:3<231:OWEIAH>2.0.ZU;2-7
Abstract
Mental health professionals and researchers have emphasized the importance of conducting outreach to locate homeless persons with mental illness, and of creatively engaging these persons into a therapeutic relationship. These outreach and engagement activities raise challenging issues in the areas o f client-staff boundaries, professional ethics, and staff safety. While sev eral issues in each of these three key areas have received attention in the growing literature on homelessness, certain issues within each area remain unexplored. The authors draw from the street experiences of outreach staff in a federally funded homeless outreach project to further explore each of these areas, and suggest that experiences of outreach workers are essentia l in shaping and redefining work activities in these, and other important a reas.