Caring for the Marginalised Groups in Society - The Homeless

Running Head: CARING FOR THE MARGINALISED GROUPS IN SOCIETY 1
CARING FOR THE MARGINALISED GROUPS IN SOCIETY- THE HOMELESS
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CARING FOR THE MARGINALISED GROUPS IN SOCIETY 2
Introduction
Marginalisation is the relegation of some individuals or groups in the society due to a
lack of access to resources, rights and opportunities. It is also referred to as social exclusion.
Marginalisation is a principal cause of vulnerability which describes exposure to a range of
potential harms and inability to deal with them appropriately (Rovny, 2014). These groups of
people are basically nominated as potential criminals because of their lack of self-control and
their presumed simmering umbrages against the society. However, these people often face
feelings of guilt, fear and other limitations. Financial constraints, skill deficiency, lack of
tolerance by the public at large and difficulties in transport accessibility renders them unable to
participate in communal activities (Weisz & Quinn, 2017 ) Even in the health care sector, these
groups may be treated differently because of who they are and how estranged they are from the
society. The marginalised groups in society (vulnerable groups) include people with mental
health problems, the homeless, drug addicts or alcoholics, prisoners or offenders. This paper
assesses the nature of care provided to homeless people in a health care institution.
Homelessness in Australia. Most Australians’ standards of living are relatively high, life
expectancy in the country is also high while the rate of unemployment is fairly low. More than
two thirds of people in Australia own their own homes or are on the verge of purchasing one. In
other words, Australia is a prosperous country (Herault & Johnson, 2016). However, alike to
many other countries, Australia still experiences a difficulty with homelessness. Homelessness is
more than just sleeping rough (in uncomfortable conditions); a homeless individual has no secure
tenancy over stable housing. It includes couch surfing, lack of a fixed address, sleeping rough
and housing in shelters. It is exceptionally rare that a person ends up homeless by choice. This

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state is generally a result of a composite combination of inadvertent and often disastrous
circumstances.
Effects of Stigmatization of the Homeless in Health Care. Stigmatization is the laying
of some mark of infamy or disgrace. The society regard homelessness as something to be
ashamed of thus the homeless are unfairly viewed as a disgrace.Homelessness is perceived as a
controllable stigma, that is, an aspect that is within the individual’s control. Homeless people are
therefore likely to experience highly legitimized forms of discrimination. Despite the fact that
homeless individuals are professed as needing compassion and care, they are also perceived as
being incompetent and not fully human. This adversely affects their wellness and wellbeing as
well as their functioning in the society (Pachankis et al., 2018). They experience prejudice and
contempt from various people in the society, even in health care settings (Johnstone et al., 2015).
Nurses’ Standards of Performance, Professional Conduct and Ethics require them to show lack of
prejudice or discrimination towards patients irrespective of their economic status. However,
there is still an existence of negative attitudes towards the homeless by nurses which impact the
quality of care received by this particular group of patients. Nurses’ bigotry is also a barrier to
homeless people’s accessibility to medical care. Furthermore, this leads to the homeless not
receiving comparable attention as other patients during heath care interactions.
Nursing Strategies for a Better Hospital Experience. A thorough understanding of the
discrimination experience in health care settings and the accompanying utilization of health care
facilities is the very first step towards coming up with policies, principles, conventions and
interventions that address health discrepancies among the homeless (Skosireva et al., 2014).
Some strategies that can be incorporated in improving the experience of the homeless in
hospitals are:

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Patient-centered Care. The driving forces of the decisions made during health care are the
patient’s specific health requirements and the desired care outcomes. Health care providers
recognize patients as partners in their care and treat them from a financial, social, emotional and
mental perspectives in addition to clinical perspective. In our situation of a homeless man who
has sustained injuries, patient-centered care is important as it will enable the health care provider
to understand the man and thus offer the best care possible (Uhlmann, Pizarro & Diermeier,
2015). Being homeless does not mean that one is not capable of making their own health care
decisions and require a certain level of health outcome (Koh & O’Connell, 2016).
Change of Attitude towards the Homeless. The nurses should try as much as possible to
extinguish the urge to judge their homeless patients. Judgments and negative attitudes blinds the
care providers so that they are not able to provide quality care that they would have otherwise
delivered. Instead, it is they should put an effort towards understanding the circumstances of the
homeless individual and what led them to lose their home or not have a home at all (Dempsey,
Reilly & Buhlman, 2014). This understanding modifies their attitude as they grasp the fact that
some homeless people are not drug addicts or criminals while some are working but cannot
afford to pay rent. It is very rare that homelessness is a result of one’s choice.