Comparing health conditions of homeless clients in Budapest day-care centres

*Aranka Kovács¹, Gabriella Csépányi², Sarolta Kurucz²

Summary
Aim. Diótörés Foundation has carried out a complex health condition study among 100 volunteering homeless people – part of the program supported by The Norwegian Found - which aimed at getting correct diagnosis and proper health care services for the clients. Furthermore, we have targeted at estimating the possibilities for helping clients to integrate into society. Given that most of our clients rely on services of various day-care institutions in Budapest, in this paper we have examined whether clients from different institutions have problems of different kinds.
Method. Well-prepared interviewers have questioned the clients on health and social topics, took family anamneses, anthropological data (e.g., BMI, waist circumference), measured blood pressure and took blood samples of clients in order to screen liver enzymes and kidney function, ions, Hepatitis C and HIV infection. The data have been processed with the use of computer.
Results. Earlier undiagnosed diseases have been screened among 46% of the examined clients. Clients from different shelters, differ in various aspects such as age, family anamnesis, and health hazardous attitudes. At the same time, well-distinguished differences have been found in the clients′ health condition. Unexpectedly, the youngest group of clients – who come from own institute – have not been found the healthiest one. In many cases, dual or triple diagnoses could be found.
Conclusion. There may exist differences of clients′ lifecycles, diseases and problems found even among institutions with similar services or social profile. Providing these clients with health services in conventional health care institutions has been considered impossible for mutual intolerance. One of the possible solutions is that the involved social institutions could provide or have direct access to specialists of medical fields such as psychiatry and infectology or hepatology so that they could be more easily available to the clients.

To jest tylko fragment artykułu. Aby przeczytać całość, przejdź do Czytelni medycznej.