The Legalities of Caring for Homeless Youth

Abstract

Homelessness is an ever-present social and economic issue worldwide that affects the healthcare field. The United States Housing and Urban Development (U.S. HUD) (2015) reported that there were 578,424 homeless people in the United States during the 2014 Point in Time count. Almost one quarter of that number was children under the age of 18 and 10% were ages 18-24 years (National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), 2015). Alaska has a higher rate of homelessness at 24.3 per 10,000 people compared to the national average of 18.3 per 10,000 people (NAEH, 2015). Although there is a decreasing rate of homelessness in the United States, Alaska has experienced an increase of 1.73% from 2012-2013 and a 4.06% increase from 2013-2014 (NAEH, 2013 & 2014). Homeless youth were reported to be 10.9% of the Alaskan homeless population (NAEH, 2015). The purpose of this project was to educate Alaskan healthcare providers on the legalities of caring for homeless youth. A webinar, with continuing education units, was developed and made available online to Alaskan healthcare providers. The focus of the educational presentation was on common situations healthcare providers are confronted with when seeing homeless youth in a clinic and if parental or guardian consent should be obtained. Evaluation was conducted via pre and post webinar testing to measure knowledge change. The pre and post webinar testing showed that all participants had an increase in knowledge and interpretation of healthcare situations that involved the minor consent law.