Social Work Assignment: Irish Youths' Homelessness and Employment

This essay, written from the perspective of an Irish social worker, examines the critical issues of youth homelessness and lack of employment services in Ireland, focusing on the challenges related to health issues like substance abuse and mental illness. The paper analyzes barriers to employment, including socio-demographic factors and the impact of inadequate income support. It discusses the importance of early intervention programs, such as counseling and pre-employment support, and draws on examples from Australia and New Zealand to highlight effective strategies. The essay emphasizes the need for increased financial aid, multi-annual financial plans, and cross-sector collaboration to address the complex challenges faced by homeless and unemployed youths. It also reflects on the author's personal experiences and cultural background, underscoring the need for informed social policies and support networks to improve the lives of vulnerable individuals.

Running head: SOCIAL WORK
SOCIAL WORK
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Introduction
There had been a period when the Republic of Ireland comprised of homogeneous
society and culture. According to Coulte (2018), the country has developed into a
multinational, cosmopolitan and globalised society. The aim of the paper is to analyse as an
Irish social worker, the current issue several youths have been experiencing related to
homelessness and lack of employment services. Additionally, the paper will offer relevant
recommendations of aiding the disadvantageous youths in Australia by introducing social
programs from education to training and employment.
Discussion
Barriers to Employment Services for Homeless Irish Citizens
Critical barriers to employment for Irish citizens are apparent which are associated
with health issues. Most crucial obstructions in this regard relate to drug addiction,
alcoholism and deteriorated mental conditions. Reports of Coulter (2018) revealed around
55% of citizens who experience homelessness indulge in excessive substance abuse, while
with 37% considered to be problematic substance users. In addition to this, reports also have
revealed that 35% have been diagnosed with psychiatric illnesses. The enumeration of
homeless youths has been notoriously oppressed. This is in part because of arguments over
ways to explain homeless inhabitants and is further associated to concealed nature of
significant level of homelessness (Barker 2016). On the other hand, income support has been
considered as one of the most vital and effectual ways of preventing poverty as well as
decreasing destitution rate in Australia. Reports of Borland (2014) on current poverty rate in
Australia has revealed that around 3.05 million inhabitants have been expected to be living
below poverty line, after considering accommodation expenses.

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Meanwhile, the linkage between homelessness and mental illness amongst youths
seemed to be bi-directional whereby the ones with mental disorders have been prone to be at
elevated risk of homelessness. Particularly high proportions of youths experiencing
homelessness deteriorated psychological conditions. In the view of authors, considering the
association between youths’ homelessness and mental health, it is significant to deliberate the
occurrence of mental health for youths. According to McGrath and O'Toole (2014), it has
been explicitly understood that experiencing mental illness tends to have significant
damaging effects on welfare, health, functioning and development in adolescence and is
associated with impaired academic achievement, unemployment, poor social functioning and
substance abuse. These destructive impacts tend to extend well beyond adolescence, forming
an ongoing cycle of dysfunction and shortcoming. On the other hand, there are number of
socio-demographic factors which elevate the capacity of youths with deteriorated mental
health. Studies have reported that since early 1990s, the Newstart program has not raised in
real times, regardless of the expenses of essentials elevating extensively. It has further been
estimated that the expense of basic essentials related to private rent, food, transportation and
other essential amenities have risen (Philip and Mallan 2015).
There has been universal acceptance of the importance of access to employment,
education and training for youths experiencing homelessness since the introduction of
Government’s ‘Homelessness: An Integrated Strategy’ in 2000. On the other hand, early
intervention supports such as counselling for accessing secured and proper accommodation in
addition to educational or employment support have been specifically considered to be vital
for susceptible and threatened youths in Australia who has the potential to couch surf and
experience mental disorders, in order to thwart them indulging into more entrenched
homelessness. The principles underlying these programs must integrate holistic, strength-
based approach along with adequate resilience to work with youths’ families. Mission

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Australia’s Northern Sydney Youth Homelessness service offers early intervention support
for youths aged 12-24 years along with their families in order to reduce and further
circumvent homelessness and family failure via case management or effective therapeutic
counselling practices in coordination with other sector organizations (Morris and Wilson
2014). The fundamental aim of service focus is based on developing the youths’ ability to
improve their independence and sustain level of connectedness by means of employment,
education as well as social activities while determining their own personal capacities through
improving their capabilities to make constructive life choices.
Furthermore, reports of Beauchamp (2016)have mentioned that in 2015 to 2016, the
Australian state and territory governments have spent over $750 million on services for
youths experiencing homelessness that included offer employment services. On the other
hand, similar approach known as the Investment Approach to youth welfare has been
efficacious in New Zealand since early 2011. Such a social initiative mainly encompassed
identifying the destitute youths who show greater propensity to remain on income support for
extensive periods and superseding early with besieged support in order to improve their
employment results and avert enduring dependency on income support. Early intervention
along with pre-employment programs is effective in impeccably enhancing youths from
education to employment. Beauchamp (2016) has claimed that Newstart and Youth
Allowance payments must be raised by at least $75.00 per week and indexed to the increase
of remunerations and cost of living. In addition to this, the Commonwealth must progress to
cross-sector alliance and work with the federal state in order to attain constructive national
employment strategy current assistances for homeless and unemployed youths. Beauchamp
(2016) is of the opinion that outreach programs can establish connections with youths
because of more informal service delivery model. These programs require to be funded as an
integral part of the service response. Drawing relevance from the service users’ standpoint,

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incentive to enter service has been regarded as a key determinant of achievement and
specifically emerges when mental issues have been effectively dealt and life skills capability
has been constructed with strengthening the necessity for a phased approach (Gaetz 2014)
It is challenging to believe that in a progressive country like Australia, youth
homelessness is extensively pervasive social issue. Thus, there is a need of social policy
debate on this matter and several forms of government benefits are positioned under the
umbrella term of ‘social assistance’. The social assistance coordination is controlled by each
province and territory, thus aiding homeless youths to improve their life conditions.
Considering my Irish cultural patterns, I have been highly susceptible to misinformation
regarding social services, policies and support networks. Consequently, I have been highly
under-represented of refugee people because of lack of rental accounts and deficiency of
finances for a bond, rent in advance as well as moving expenses. On the other hand, as an
immigrant, I have experienced poor levels of learning in first language, disturbing migrant
experiences in addition to disruption to training in Australia.
The vast majority of people were white, English speaking and belonged to Catholic
sect. However, over the last five decades, the cultural map of Ireland has undergone
significant changes. The values of equality and peace clearly in Irish cultural patterns have
helped in understanding convergence in social policy. Furthermore, values and ideology has
aided in realizing the assurance of maintaining the concrete value of social welfare payments
along with the level of social services maintained.
Conclusion

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Hence to conclude, financial aid of employment services for youths’ unemployment
and homelessness has been an area of critical concern. Social initiatives and programs which
have been introduced have been typically dependent on private sector sponsorship or inter-
subsidisation from extensive fund raising activities. In addition to this, there can further be
seen a need for multi-annual financial plans to be recognized and established notwithstanding
the recently developed homeless strategy in order to guarantee that obstructions to
employment have been satisfactorily addressed.

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References
Barker, J., 2016. A habitus of instability: Youth homelessness and instability. Journal of
Youth Studies, 19(5), pp.665-683.
Beauchamp, T. (2016). Young people transitioning from care in Australia: A critical but
neglected area of policy development. In Young people transitioning from out-of-home
care (pp. 265-284). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Borland, J., 2014. Dealing with unemployment: What should be the role of labour market
programs?. Evidence Base, 4(1), pp.1-21.
Coulter, C., 2018. The end of Irish history?: An introduction to the book. In The end of Irish
history?. Manchester University Press.
Gaetz, S., 2014. Coming of age: Reimagining the response to youth homelessness in Canada.
Canadian Homelessness Research Network.
McGrath, H. and O'Toole, T., 2014. A cross-cultural comparison of the network capability
development of entrepreneurial firms. Industrial Marketing Management, 43(6), pp.897-910.
Morris, A. and Wilson, S., 2014. Struggling on the Newstart unemployment benefit in
Australia: The experience of a neoliberal form of employment assistance. The Economic and
Labour Relations Review, 25(2), pp.202-221.
Philip, T. and Mallan, K., 2015. A new start?: Implications of work for the dole on mental
health of unemployed young Australians. CYRC Occasional Papers, 2015(1).