Health & Healthcare
The link between health and homelessness may frequently be overlooked. Homelessness worsens health, with homeless individuals in their 50s experiencing the same health concerns as their housed counterparts in their 70s and 80s. With medical care, recovery, and healing made more difficult by homelessness, it’s clear that housing is health care.
UCSF BHHI’s health and health care research explores the links between homelessness and health. Our research focuses on reducing the barriers preventing people experiencing homelessness from accessing health care while identifying ways to facilitate access to existing health services.
Related Resources
Our Research
Using Behavioral Theory to Adapt Advance Care Planning for Homeless-Experienced Older Adults in Permanent Supportive Housing
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
August 1, 2023
Our Research
Using Behavioral Theory to Adapt Advance Care Planning for Homeless-Experienced Older Adults in Permanent Supportive Housing
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
August 1, 2023
Older adults experiencing chronic homelessness have low rates of advance care planning despite high rates of morbidity and mortality. Researchers explored if rehousing people who experience homelessness into permanent supportive housing (PSH) would present an opportunity to introduce advance care planning (ACP). Researchers identified behavioral determinants related to ACP for formerly chronically homeless adults in PSH.
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Our Research
"I Needed for You to See What I'm Talking About": Experiences With Telehealth Among Homeless-Experienced Older Adults
Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine
May 6, 2023
Our Research
"I Needed for You to See What I'm Talking About": Experiences With Telehealth Among Homeless-Experienced Older Adults
Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine
May 6, 2023
Little is known how older adults with a current or recent experience of homelessness navigated the switch to telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers examined the perceptions and use of telehealth, sampling from a larger longitudinal study on homeless-experienced adults in Oakland, CA. They found that the participants experienced challenges accessing the necessary technologies for telehealth.
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Our Research
Cluster Analysis of the Highest Users of Medical, Behavioral Health, and Social Services in San Francisco
Journal of General Internal Medicine
April 1, 2023
Our Research
Cluster Analysis of the Highest Users of Medical, Behavioral Health, and Social Services in San Francisco
Journal of General Internal Medicine
April 1, 2023
This study from BHHI researchers describes five distinct subgroups of the highest users of the health care system in San Francisco with differential comorbidities, health care needs, and social determinants of health, spanning from patients with medical comorbidities solely using medical services to patients grappling with housing insecurity, incarceration, substance use disorder, and mental health comorbidities. Frequent users of the health care system are not a homogenous population as previously thought. This study sheds new light on how to help the most vulnerable patients and inform clinicians and care coordination teams on making sure patients get the care they need the most.
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