The intersection of housing and mental well-being: Examining the needs of formerly homeless young adults transitioning to stable housing

We examine the challenges formerly homeless young adults (FHYAs) face after they transition out of homelessness. Considering the adversities FHYAs face, it is unclear how transitioning to stable housing may affect their mental well-being or what types of stressors they may experience once housed. This study investigates the social environment young adults encounter in their transition to stable housing and examines trauma and social coping predictors of mental health symptoms in a sample of FHYAs to generate new knowledge for better intervening to meet their needs. Data were obtained from REALYST, a national research collaborative comprised of interdisciplinary researchers investigating young adults’ (ages 18–26) experiences with homelessness. Cross-sectional data for 1426 young adults experiencing homelessness were collected from 2016 to 2017 across seven cities in the United States (i.e., Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Houston, San Jose, St. Louis, and New York City). The analytical sub-sample for this study consisted of 173 FHYAs who were housed in their own apartment (via voucher from Housing and Urban Development or another source) or in transitional living programs during their participation in the study. Ordinary Least Squares regression was used to examine the influence of trauma and social coping strategies on indicators of mental well-being. Findings indicated that higher adversity scores and higher mental health help-seeking intentions were positively associated with higher levels of stress, psychological distress, and depression severity. Higher level of social coping was associated with lower levels of depression severity. Logistic regression results showed that young adults with higher adversity scores had higher odds of reporting clinical levels of post-traumatic symptoms. The study implications suggest that FHYAs who transition to stable housing continue to need support navigating and coping with stressful life events; and interventions that help FHYAs develop strong networks of social supports are needed to promote positive mental well-being

Global economic burden of unmet surgical need for appendicitis

Background There is a substantial gap in provision of adequate surgical care in many low- and middle-income countries. This study aimed to identify the economic burden of unmet surgical need for the common condition of appendicitis. Methods Data on the incidence of appendicitis from 170 countries and two different approaches were used to estimate numbers of patients who do not receive surgery: as a fixed proportion of the total unmet surgical need per country (approach 1); and based on country income status (approach 2). Indirect costs with current levels of access and local quality, and those if quality were at the standards of high-income countries, were estimated. A human capital approach was applied, focusing on the economic burden resulting from premature death and absenteeism. Results Excess mortality was 4185 per 100 000 cases of appendicitis using approach 1 and 3448 per 100 000 using approach 2. The economic burden of continuing current levels of access and local quality was US $92 492 million using approach 1 and$73 141 million using approach 2. The economic burden of not providing surgical care to the standards of high-income countries was $95 004 million using approach 1 and$75 666 million using approach 2. The largest share of these costs resulted from premature death (97.7 per cent) and lack of access (97.0 per cent) in contrast to lack of quality. Conclusion For a comparatively non-complex emergency condition such as appendicitis, increasing access to care should be prioritized. Although improving quality of care should not be neglected, increasing provision of care at current standards could reduce societal costs substantially