Health and Substance Abuse

Transcription

1 The only time I was really serious about killing myself was the night I slept in the park. It was cold and damp and the fog ran over the water all night. I sat under a slide to keep dry and just let my thoughts go. I had no home, no food, no family and no future. What was left to live for? (17 year old male) Health and Substance Abuse To better understand the issues facing homeless youth, questions were asked about physical and mental health, including substance use. Perspectives on health issues varied from town to town. Smiths Falls had one of the higher drug/physical abuse rates, and yet they have the lowest health complaint statistics of all the towns, while those interviewed in Perth listed off many concerns. Suicide Nearly one- half (46%) of all the youth surveyed admitted to having contemplated/attempted suicide, for a myriad of reasons: abuse, lack of love, death in the family, school, etc. One person said their reason for contemplating suicide was simply that: I didn t feel like anyone cared for me anymore. The female respondents were more likely to admit to having seriously contemplated suicide than the males, by a ratio of 2:1. Of the youth that had contemplated suicide, only one-third of them had sought some sort of help. That leaves two out of three youth surveyed thought about committing suicide but didn t seek any help or intervention. In Smiths Falls, 100% stated they wouldn t use an Emergency Help Line. Nutrition and Sleeping Patterns Of the youth surveyed, 41% were eating less than three meals a day, 13% of the respondents 22

2 eating just once a day or less. When asked if this was due to personal choice, 36% said that it Sometimes, when things were really bad, it was awfully hard to find food. Your friends only want to feed you for so long. There were times when I was looking for food in the dumpsters. You start to feel really bad about your life and about yourself. That was a really hard time. was not; 20% stated they did not have access to nutritious food. When asked the sources of their food when homeless, 47% stated parents; 44% bought their own food; 23% had used the food Bank; 22% ate at local youth centres; 17% at friends; 17% at friends parents; and 10% at churches On the subject of getting enough sleep, 34% found that they were sleeping only a few hours a day, or hardly at all. Eighteen percent said that they didn t have any control over their sleeping arrangements Mental and Physical Health It was discovered that 38.4% of the youth surveyed suffer from some sort of physical illness. Ninety nine percent of people surveyed said they have access to medical health clinics, although 10% said they are not able to get medicine when they needed it. One in five do not have a family doctor. (18 year old male) When asked whether they feel that they have any mental health issues 23 out of 99 youth said yes. Of those 23, 16 have been diagnosed as having a mental health issue, leaving 7 of the youth who feel they have a mental health issue, which remained unidentified. Also reported, 21.2% of the youth surveyed have used the help of a psychologist or psychiatrist in the past. Close to 30% of youth surveyed have used the help of a social worker, and 41.4% had 23

3 Just about everybody I know smokes dope. I think it s pretty much socially acceptable now. The drugs that are starting to get really big are the prescription ones - like morphine. You can get that pretty much everywhere. (16 year old girl) I started drinking when I was 10. My parents always had parties and had booze lying around. They thought it was pretty funny. Now it s just not a big deal. received help from a counselor or therapist. Substance Abuse When asked whether they consume alcohol, 97% of youth said yes. Approximately one-third consume alcohol on an occasional basis, one-third consume alcohol on a frequent basis and one-third consume alcohol on a regular basis. 75% of the male respondents reported drinking alcohol regularly, while the female respondents reported a 60% rate. The male respondents in Smiths Falls reported the highest consumption of alcohol within the survey. According to the Leeds-Grenville Youth Mental Health Survey, students who reported more frequent use of alcohol, were eight times more likely to report using one or more street drugs. In all but the Smiths Falls respondents, marijuana and hashish were the most frequently used drugs, after alcohol. While both were considered softer drugs, the youth interviewed reported considerable use with harder drugs throughout Lanark County, with 64% reported having used cocaine/crack and 39% acids. A very potent and dangerous hallucinatory narcotic known as magic mushrooms were used by many respondents (66.7%). Any misconception about the hard drugs being a big city phenomenon is easily dispelled when recognizing the number of respondents admitting use of everything from Heroin (11%) to Ecstacy (36%). To 24

4 When my parents are drunk, we fight further this point, nine respondents from Almonte and another nine from Lanark Village divulged they had used mushrooms, acid, cocaine/crack and ecstasy. 16 year old female Elizabeth Votta noted similar high levels of substance abuse of homeless youth in her study conducted through CHEO s Child and youth Injury-Prevention Centre (Votta 2001). Dr. Votta found that 25% reported using alcohol a few times per week, while 34% reported daily drug use. Among the homeless youth, 77% reported smoking marijuana, 10% used acid, 4% used cocaine, 5% used hash, and 4% used ecstasy. Significantly, substance abuse, either the parents or the youth s, was often linked with the reasons for the youth leaving the parental home. The youth readily admitted their own drug use (25%) was the source of arguments with their parents and contributed to their leaving home. The youth also reported (19%) that parents drug use was a factor in their leaving. One interesting note, is the comparison of the number of youths surveyed who said a reason for having to leave home over their alcohol from those who said it was a parent s alcohol use: they were almost equal. However, the results were quite different for other drugs, with the youths admitting it was their own drug use that contributed to their leaving, twice as often as compared to parental drug use. Seventy-five percent of youth smoke cigarettes on a regular basis; another 18.9% smoke occasionally. Of all the youth asked, only 7.4% do not smoke cigarettes. Compared with the data available on high school students in neighbouring Leeds and Grenville, this number is about 5 times higher among our sample. 25

5 Drug Usage by Lanark Homeless Youth 26