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.
