homeless pt's?

[scrmblr]

This is my first winter in the ER. The weather just turned really cold and yesterday I had 3 homeless pt's come in with vague complaints...one had just moved from a warmer climate to our bitter cold dry climate and was pretty sick with an asthma exac. 2 of the homeless pt's I had were found a shelter for the night and one was admitted for etoh detox. But trying to find a place for them took me a long time. Not only did it take me a long time, but it seemed that everyone was just too burned out to really help.

My question...How do you deal with your feelings on this. My heart just about broke. A few of the long-timers said things like "these people have made choices in their lives and this is what happens" Or "you can't fix the planet" or "don't feed them, they just come back"

I'm no bleeding heart. I do see that people made choices and took the road that lead them down these paths. I'm just curious to see what your feelings are about homeless pt's in the ER. Do you feel that they are "wasting your beds" are you able to go home and forget about the pathetic pt's? I guess I'm just looking a way to figure out why I feel guilty about having so much when people have so little.

[LoriAlabamaRN]

I live in Illinois and we are one of the strongest welfare to work states. There is a limit of 5 years that a person is allowed to have TANF which is TEMPORARY Aid to Needy Families and there are only two levels: with and without children and it doesn't matter how many kids you have - you get the same amount. You might get an additional few dollars in food stamps, but that is all. There are several programs that will put the needy through school also. I help to run my church's Food Pantry and we provide food for about 30 families/month. We have many people with needs. In the ER I am also seeing more older homeless - those over 50 or 60 that have been working minimum wage jobs all their lives, but got laid off, lost their housing, whatever and they are now homeless. So...I guess we haven't solved the world's problems here, but at least this has given many of us food for thought.

I think the program sounds fantastic! Although I wouldn't go for FIVE years... but that's just me :wink2:

[LoriAlabamaRN]

Lori Alabama RN-----I totally agree with you! I believe that people may need public assistance at some point in their lives, but it should be limited. Too many people abuse the system . My mother was a single mom, she worked her orifice off to provide for us. she has no college degree, but she did what she needed to do for us. She eventually remarried, but ended up divorced, pregnant (2nd child), and lost her job (lay offs). At the time of her divorce and job loss she was 6 months pregnant. She went on unemployment and eventually welfare. This lasted a total of about 5 months. she found a job when my my brother was about 2mos. old and she went off welfare and went back to work------hence -public assistance for a limited time when in need. She has since had a job and continued to sacrafice and work her orifice off to give my brother and I a life. I respect her and am so proud she in my mother. She instilled in us life is not easy, it takes sacrafices and hard work. I am so glad she did not abuse the system, because I believe it becomes a way of life for a lot of the people on PA, and it goes on from generation to generation. The people who ABUSE the system sicken me, while people like my mother worked and sacrafice their whole life and their hard earned money goes to the abusers. Again- I believe people may need limited assistance at some point in their lives- and thats ok- but eventually they need to be responsible productive people.

Amen to that. The closest I ever came was when I worked for a mortgage company that had a 50% layoff due to skyrocketing interest rates. I accepted unemployment for almost a month. I don't understand how people can be comfortable living off of the government like they do- just collecting unemployment made ME feel guilty.

[teeituptom, BSN, RN]

OH PLLLLEEEEESSSSEEEEEE! What a ridiculous statement! Under WHAT administration EVER has homelessness gotten better? It will ALWAYS be with us regardless of the "administration"!

Why don't we just go to a socialist or communist administration and all the world will be right!

I dont really think we need to go that far left to communism, just a little further left maybe to Being Democratic or even Libertarian would be nicer, anything would be more of a help than the Republican Party.