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May 13, 2008Homeless youth need more than treatment for substance abuse, study says |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: A new study of homeless youth suggests that treating substance abuse and mental health problems may not be enough to help get teens off the streets. A study of 180 homeless youth in New Mexico found that those with the most social stability, such as those who attended school more often or those who had a job, were most likely to reduce their homeless days over a six-month period. While youth who had a history of abuse or mental health problems were more likely to become homeless, those same characteristics did not predict teens and young adults getting off the street six months later. "It looks like the predictors of homelessness might be different than the predictors of exiting homelessness. So that means prevention targets should be different from intervention targets," said Natasha Slesnick, lead author of the study and associate professor of human development and family science at Ohio State University. It's hard to get homeless youth off of alcohol and drugs when they're still trying to get their basic needs met. And a lot of the kids use alcohol and drugs as a way to cope with being homeless," she said. Those youth who were homeless for at least three months participated in follow-up interviews three and six months after beginning the program. These teens and young adults reported participating in the most dangerous behaviors including unprotected sex, multiple sex partners, and intravenous drug use. Previous studies have suggested that homeless males are more susceptible to environmental stress and thus, more likely to leave the street to escape that stress. Slesnick is currently conducting a study in Columbus, Ohio focusing on the differences between intensive intervention, case management and brief intervention methods on homeless youth.
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