Learning Objective #1: Identify health care access barriers for individuals who are homeless

Learning Objective #2: Identify disparities in health care access for individuals who are homeless

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This research explores the health care needs of homeless men, women, and children in San Diego, California. There are currently over 15,000 homeless individuals annually in San Diego County, many of them in the downtown area. These individuals seek care from many providers. Little is known about their perception of their own health needs and wants, where and how they seek care, the problems they experience from fragmentation of care, their access-to-care issues, and their difficulty obtaining medication and follow-up care. Residents of shelter programs have improved access to health care and assistance with obtaining benefits to support that care, but the truly homeless have very little support. In this project, the focus is on interviewing homeless adults who use the Neal Good Day Center. These individuals are not in a shelter environment, and have access to this service center during daytime hours only. They live on the street and frequently do not have any health care benefits or financial support.

The goal of this research is to identify health care needs, health care access issues, and health care delivery problems, and develop a better understanding of health care disparities for this vulnerable population. Secondarily, health care is often planned and provided without input from the people being served, especially when the patients are from vulnerable populations; this research project gives participants a voice in the development and delivery of their own health care.

Interviews are conducted on the streets near the Neal Good Center. Undergraduate and graduate nursing students participate in conducting interviews, performing data analysis, and presenting/publishing related to this research. A qualitative research approach using grounded theory methodology is the structure used to meet the goal of developing a grounded theory related to the process of obtaining and utilizing health care for a homeless individual or family.