Street-involved women with co-occurring disorders: development of policy and practice recommendations for Street Connections
Loading...
Date
2007-12-07T15:13:16Z
Authors
Heywood, Diane
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Street-involved women with co-occurring disorders experience distinct and overwhelming health and social issues, while facing considerable barriers to appropriate and helpful services. Street Connections, a Population and Public Health program, provides services to this and other street-involved aggregates using Harm Reduction and mobile outreach to prevent sexually transmitted infections and blood borne pathogens. Three conceptual frameworks, Gender-based Analysis, the Comprehensive, Continuous, Integrated System of Care, and Harm Reduction guided the practicum. The purpose of the practicum was to develop policy/practice recommendations for Street Connections regarding service enhancement for this aggregate. Literature-based best-practices were compared to three agency case studies of programs providing services to this aggregate including Street Connections, the Program of Assertive Community Treatment, and Dream Catchers. Data, consisting of agency documents and person-centered interviews with nine staff, were analyzed using open coding to identify themes. Recommendations incorporate gender-based analysis, recovery, access, engagement, screening, integrated services, and staff development/support.
Description
Keywords
Street-involved, Co-occurring Disorders, Harm Reduction, Women, Population, Case-study method, public health