HOMELESSNESS - CARE, PREVENTION, AND PUBLIC-POLICY

Homeless men, women, and children make up a growing population that is vulnerable to preventable disease, progressive morbidity, and prematu re death. Homelessness and poverty are inextricably linked, and subgro ups of persons who live in poverty have a particularly high risk for b ecoming homeless. Providing effective primary care for homeless person s is a formidable task because of many internal and external barriers to care. Targeted care strategies and new approaches to primary care a re required to lower these barriers. Effective disease prevention in t he homeless requires effective programs and policies to prevent homele ssness. It is imperative that health professionals, the societies to w hich they belong, and academic health systems reaffirm their social re sponsibility, commit to changing public policies that perpetuate homel essness, and assist in the development and provision of primary health care services for persons who are homeless or on the brink of homeles sness.