Runaway and homeless youth experience negative physical and reproductive health consequences as a result of their experiences and face a range of barriers in accessing health care. As a result, homeless youth are less likely to have access to medical care.1
Health
Teen Pregnancy
HIV/STDs
Barriers
Runaway and homeless youth face a range of barriers that make access to health care more difficult. Examples of these include
In addition, for many of these young people, health care may not be a priority over day-to-day survival issues.20
Federal programs and shelters can help to provide services to youth or connect them to appropriate services to ensure that they receive the health care supports that they need and prevent chronic health issues. Maternity group homes provide additional services for pregnant and parenting youth to educate them in taking care of a child. Learn more about the different types of federal programs. A range of prevention efforts have also focused on preventing HIV/AIDS and other STDs among homeless and runaway youth. One example is Street Smart which you can learn more about on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s website.
Homelessness Resource Center: Homeless Populations
The Homelessness Resource Center, supported by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is an interactive community of providers, consumers, policymakers, researchers, and public agencies at the federal, state, and local levels. The Center shares state-of-the art knowledge and promising practices to prevent and end homelessness through the following:
The Center includes a section focused specifically on youth.
Runaway and Homeless Youth Training and Technical Assistance Center
This is a centralized national resource for Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) grantees funded by the Family and Youth Services Bureau at HHS. Training and Technical Assistance Services are directed at assisting RHY grantees to engage in continuous quality improvement of their services and to build their capacity to effectively serve runaway and homeless youth.
Primer on How to Use Medicaid to Assist Persons Who are Homeless to Access Medical, Behavioral Health, and Support Services
This document from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provides information to help to connect people who are homeless with critical Medicaid benefits.
Health Care for the Homeless
This site from Health Resources and Services Administration provides lists of grantees, patients by age and gender, patients by race/ethnicity/language, patients by socioeconomic characteristics, selected diagnoses and services rendered, and staffing and utilization. Of these grantees, 117,411 youth under the age of 20 were served according to data updated in 2009.
1 Shinn, et al. , 2008
2 Terry, Bendi, & Patel, 2010
3 Terry, Bendi, & Patel, 2010
4 Terry, Bendi, & Patel, 2010
5 HRSA, 2001
6 Samules, Shimm, & Buckner, 2010
7 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008
8 Greene and Ringwalt, 1998
9 Greene and Ringwalt, 1998
10 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008
11 Greene and Ringwalt, 1998
12 Thompson, Bender, Lewis, & Watkins, 2007; HRSA, 2001
13 Thompson, Bender, Lewis, & Watkins, 2007
14 Greene and Ringwalt, 1998; Solorio et al. 2006
15 Toro, Dworsky, & Fowler, 2007
16 Thomson, Bender, Lewis, & Watkins, 2008
17 Noell, Rohde, Ochs, Yovanoff, Alter, Schmid, Bullard, & Black, 2001
18 Rotheram-Borus, Song, Gwadz, Lee, Van Rossem, & Kooperman, 2003
19 HRSA, 2001; Terry, Bendi, & Patel, 2010
20 HRSA, 2001; Terry, Bendi, & Patel, 2010
Map My Community is a tool designed specifically to assist you in locating resources in your community to help you build and strengthen your youth program. Get ideas for new partnerships, identify gaps in your community, and learn about resources to avoid duplication of effort.
FindYouthInfo.gov is the U.S. government Web site that helps you create, maintain, and strengthen effective youth programs. Included are youth facts, funding information, and tools to help you assess community assets, generate maps of local and federal resources, search for evidence-based youth programs, and keep up-to-date on the latest, youth-related news.