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Homelessness at the San Diego Central Library: Assessing the Potential Role of Social Workers

Nationwide, public libraries are experiencing an increase in “on-premise” opioid overdoses and other issues (e.g., suicide attempts) affecting unstably housed library users. The public library presents a unique opportunity to access an otherwise hidden population. In partnership with the San Diego C...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Urada, Lianne A., Nicholls, Melanie J., Faille, Stephen R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9322596/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35886311
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148449
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author Urada, Lianne A.
Nicholls, Melanie J.
Faille, Stephen R.
author_facet Urada, Lianne A.
Nicholls, Melanie J.
Faille, Stephen R.
author_sort Urada, Lianne A.
collection PubMed
description Nationwide, public libraries are experiencing an increase in “on-premise” opioid overdoses and other issues (e.g., suicide attempts) affecting unstably housed library users. The public library presents a unique opportunity to access an otherwise hidden population. In partnership with the San Diego Central Library, researchers led focus groups, in-depth interviews, and surveys with 63 library patrons experiencing homelessness or housing instability (n = 49) and library staff (n = 14) (January–June 2019). Using a consensus organizing framework and mixed methods approach, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews exploring the library’s strengths and opportunities for patrons experiencing homelessness, the barriers to meeting their aspirations, and whether having a social worker at the library or other policy changes in government or the library could help. Specifically, participants answered inquiries about the opportunities for the library to address substance use and human trafficking. In brief surveys, library patrons and staff provided views on the patrons’ educational needs, library staff’s training needs, and changes needed in government or library policies. Results revealed the desire of the library patrons (69%) and staff (93%) to have a library social worker who could link patrons to housing services, substance use harm reduction or treatment, and address food-insecure youth/families and human trafficking/sexual exploitation. Participants also valued peer advocates with lived homelessness experiences. Over 70% of the unstably housed patrons said they would like library patrons to participate in peer leadership training. Other significant themes were the need for crisis prevention and intervention, connecting patrons to resources and each other, and creating consistent assistance. Libraries urgently need more on-premise support to address patrons’ pressing housing, health, and mental health needs.
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spelling pubmed-93225962022-07-27 Homelessness at the San Diego Central Library: Assessing the Potential Role of Social Workers Urada, Lianne A. Nicholls, Melanie J. Faille, Stephen R. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Nationwide, public libraries are experiencing an increase in “on-premise” opioid overdoses and other issues (e.g., suicide attempts) affecting unstably housed library users. The public library presents a unique opportunity to access an otherwise hidden population. In partnership with the San Diego Central Library, researchers led focus groups, in-depth interviews, and surveys with 63 library patrons experiencing homelessness or housing instability (n = 49) and library staff (n = 14) (January–June 2019). Using a consensus organizing framework and mixed methods approach, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews exploring the library’s strengths and opportunities for patrons experiencing homelessness, the barriers to meeting their aspirations, and whether having a social worker at the library or other policy changes in government or the library could help. Specifically, participants answered inquiries about the opportunities for the library to address substance use and human trafficking. In brief surveys, library patrons and staff provided views on the patrons’ educational needs, library staff’s training needs, and changes needed in government or library policies. Results revealed the desire of the library patrons (69%) and staff (93%) to have a library social worker who could link patrons to housing services, substance use harm reduction or treatment, and address food-insecure youth/families and human trafficking/sexual exploitation. Participants also valued peer advocates with lived homelessness experiences. Over 70% of the unstably housed patrons said they would like library patrons to participate in peer leadership training. Other significant themes were the need for crisis prevention and intervention, connecting patrons to resources and each other, and creating consistent assistance. Libraries urgently need more on-premise support to address patrons’ pressing housing, health, and mental health needs. MDPI 2022-07-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9322596/ /pubmed/35886311 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148449 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Urada, Lianne A.
Nicholls, Melanie J.
Faille, Stephen R.
Homelessness at the San Diego Central Library: Assessing the Potential Role of Social Workers
title Homelessness at the San Diego Central Library: Assessing the Potential Role of Social Workers
title_full Homelessness at the San Diego Central Library: Assessing the Potential Role of Social Workers
title_fullStr Homelessness at the San Diego Central Library: Assessing the Potential Role of Social Workers
title_full_unstemmed Homelessness at the San Diego Central Library: Assessing the Potential Role of Social Workers
title_short Homelessness at the San Diego Central Library: Assessing the Potential Role of Social Workers
title_sort homelessness at the san diego central library: assessing the potential role of social workers
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9322596/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35886311
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148449
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