course material

1. Describe two advocacy actions you can personally and professional take
POST REPLYWrite reply to s provided below.POST1:Linda LakePopulation Social Advocacy
NeedsDescribe the social advocacy needs of the population you chose for your final course
project.Describe two advocacy actions you can personally and professional take that could
potentially improve the lives of this population.Homelessness is now considered a serious
ongoing public health problem. The U.S. has tried to conquer the factors that cause
homelessness but has struggled to truly define what the issues are. Individuals with mental
illness have a higher degree of risk to become homeless (Mejia-Lancheros et al, 2020). It has
been estimated that mental illness accounts for about a third of the world’s disability. The
U.S. has estimated that there are about 30 – 60% of homeless people that have some kind of
mental health disorder (Fleury et al., 2021). Mental illness that is firmly associated to
poverty can lead to homeless. The mentally ill homeless is faced with the same struggles
that the homeless who are not suffering with mental illness along with mental health
challenges of trying to exist day to day. This specific society has special issues. The
discrimination that they must tolerate is the normal avoidance and looked down upon as
other homeless people and they have the “crazy” factor. These individuals are even more
discriminated against due to fear, stereo typing and disgust (Mejia-Lancheros et al. 2020).
Now what is happening is that social and health care services are projecting discriminating
behavior to the individuals that they should be caring and assisting. This causes many of the
homeless with mental illness to not get the assistance or health care that they may need.
The homeless with mental illness is in many ways an island of their own. Their needs to
have more training and education for those who are interacting with these people. There is
no law or amendment that specifies the mentally ill homeless. The Stewart B. McKinney
Homeless Assistance Act produced fifteen programs and only two of those programs
mentions the mentally ill homeless.The advocacy actions that I could do is to get more
involved with the homeless support organizations. I could discuss with those who are in
charge of these organizations and find out what has been done about the homeless with
mental illness discrimination. It would be ideal to get more training implemented for these
organizations to really focused on the issue. I could do more research on the discrimination
of the homeless with mental illness to present to homeless support organizations and
groups to help keep the awareness in focus and hopefully bring more people into
supporting this social injustice. Having relevant and high quality research helps show
documented support and influences the audience.The homeless with mental illness is really
a society of poverty individuals that need assistance and support. Having the mental issues

2. adds to the inability to maintain normal everyday functions like going to work, pay bills and
take care of daily needs. Discrimination has been shown to have strong influences on those
it affects. It has been observed that the stress due to perceived discrimination has negative
affects which can cause harm physically and mentally (Skosireva et al., 2014). This affect
could lead to risky health behaviors. If you add this behavior to the services that are
supposed to support and care for you. This could be detrimental. The need to get this group
of individuals social justice is vital. Anyone who needs help should not be treated like they
do not deserve it.References:Fleury, M., Greiner, G., Sabetti, J., Bertrand, K., Clément, M., &
Brochu, S. (2021). Met and unmet needs of homeless individuals at different stages of
housing reintegration: A mixed-method investigation. PloS One, 16(1), e0245088-
e0245088. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245088Mejia-Lancheros, C., Lachaud, J.,
O’Campo, P., Wiens, K., Nisenbaum, R., Wang, R., Hwang, S. W., & Stergiopoulos, V. (2020).
Trajectories and mental health-related predictors of perceived discrimination and stigma
among homeless adults with mental illness. PloS One, 15(2), e0229385.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229385Skosireva, A., O’Campo, P., Zerger, S.,
Chambers, C., Gapka, S., & Stergiopoulos, V. (2014). Different faces of discrimination:
Perceived discrimination among homeless adults with mental illness in healthcare settings.
BMC Health Services Research, 14(1), 376-376. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-14-
376POST 2Alexis AlexanderDescribe the social advocacy needs of the population you chose
for your final course project.Describe two advocacy actions you can personally and
professional take that could potentially improve the lives of this population.The African
American population of returning citizens from correctional facilities was my chosen
subject for my final project. It is disheartening of the over-representation of African
Americans, specifically males, in the prison systems. Existing research shows that
neighborhood-level disadvantages produces race based differences in adolescent violence
as an account in serious crime noted among returning citizens (Bellair & Kowalski, 2011).
Discrimination in the criminal justice ssystem can be addressed by uprooting and modifying
disadvantaged families and neighborhoods with quality access to services and favorable
conditions.Two advocacy actions I can personally and professionally take that could
potentially improves the lives of this population are continued education in the social work
profession and create an organization that bring low income disadvantaged communities
together and educate them as well. Awareness and knowledge are the two biggest things
that can improve most situations or issue.References:Bellair, P. E., & Kowalski, B. R. (2011).
Low-skill employment opportunity and Africanamerican-white difference in recidivism.
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 48(2), 176-208.Describe two advocacy
actions you can personally and professional take that could potentially improve the lives of
this population.