Access of the Homeless Population to health services: utopia or reality?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34019/1809-8363.2023.v26.42196Keywords:
Ill-Housed Persons, Public Health, Health Services Accessibility, Universalization of Health, Health VulnerabilityAbstract
Living on the streets is an extremely socially vulnerable condition, which often causes disease. Furthermore, there are several obstacles for homeless persons to access health services and receive care. This article aims to analyze the access of homeless people to health services, using ethnography as a method. The investigation included nine homeless persons from Rio de Janeiro. Domain analysis was used to analyze the data. After data interpretation, the following category of analysis was created: Obstacles to access health services. This category allowed understanding that the ways of living and surviving of homeless persons are connected to the fact that their lives take place in urban spaces. This is associated with every-day difficulties faced by this population to access health services, added to the several barriers within health institutions themselves. Health workers must take ethical-political action, considering the specificities of homeless people and their culture, while focusing on the social maladies imposed onto their daily lives.