Diane Rehm interviewed Dr Robert L. Okin in the podcast on 24th November 2014. In the interview, Dr Okin explains how he set out to confront his fears and went to the streets of San Francisco for over two years and interacted with over forty mentally challenged men and women who are homeless. He asked himself day after day how does the homeless end up being in the street, and how do they against all the odds survive the kind of life they have. The mental ill homeless has with time become a fixture in urban landscape across the United States of America. Meeting these individuals in the street every day can make one be frightened or even uncomfortable.
On a particular night, over a half, a million individuals in the United States are without homes, and close to fifty per cent of the total number may be as a result of suffering from mental disorders. Dr Okin said during the interview that these Americans have become invisible to all of us. He had to spend over two years interacting and photographing these men and women residing in the streets of San Francisco. He found out from the homeless that most of them had a history of either neglect, resilience or abuse. He recommends that legislation to assist and curtail the mental disorder homeless will be possible if we can stop taking our eyes away, and begin seeing these homeless people as complete human beings who are members of the society.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Research conducted by the doctor demonstrated that there is an excellent correlation between mental illness, incarceration and homelessness (Okin, 2014) . Individuals with mental disorders and are drug users have a higher possibility of being incarcerated when compared to the other overall population. Although for some people, the way into homelessness can be as a result of issues like income level, employment status or even housing. However, most of the cases of homelessness in the United States are as a result of mental disorders as well as mental well-being and health. Homeless individuals are missing particular critical capacities that are significant in leading a functioning life. While this can be as a result of several reasons, in most cases it is due to psychological issues. Most of these mentally ill homeless people on the streets of San Francisco have struggled with very traumatising as well as difficult family circumstances for most of their lives.
According to (Okin, 2014) , homelessness is due to a combination of several traumatizing experiences in life, substance abuse, social marginalization as well as mental disorders. In his research, Okin had the chance to interview most homeless people in the streets about their history and their previous living circumstances. The history he was told was filled with war traumas, drug addictions, loss of loved ones and childhood abuse. Nevertheless, one main thing these homeless individuals in the streets tend to have is severe pain and emotional distress that is not allowing these people to function right and conduct their personal affairs properly. With better mental health services and facilities for the mentally ill homeless, most of them could be rehabilitated back into society, allowing them with proper support to learn how to live functioning lives once again.
References
Okin, R. (2014). Silent Voices: People with Mental Disorders on the Streets. San Francisco: Golden Pines Press.
