Share A Meal USC
Growing up in Raleigh, North Carolina, I never had direct experience with the homeless population. Raleigh can be considered a pretty small city compared to Los Angeles with most freeways being only 2 lanes. So, when I came to USC I immediately realized how big and prominent the homeless population is around campus. It was and still is disheartening to see people on the streets with absolutely nothing except for a trash bags full of miscellaneous items.
Last week I had the opportunity to volunteer at Share A Meal, which is a non-profit organization that makes burritos and gives them out to the people on the streets. It was quite an experience for me because I had no idea how each individual was going to react when I offered them food and/or water. Unfortunately, since there is such a high percentage of a homeless person with mental disorder, like PTSD, it was a little unnerving at first. But I found that most were some of the most grateful people I have ever met. When our group approached a small homeless community, the people living there welcomed us and wanted to talk about our well-being. It was one of the best experiences at USC I have had because I was able to her their stories. Each one of them had a unique story with why and how they are in the situation they are in. It completely shows you a different prospective of life and it made me even more driven to find some sort of solution.
This is why I am very passionate about finding a better way to care for homeless people, especially individuals whoa re diagnosed with PTSD. It is very disheartening to realize that many civilians with PTSD are diagnosed with it because they are homeless. This topic of having the actual act of being homeless as a traumatic event to trigger PTSD is widely under-researched. It is commonly accepted that usually serving in the military in combat situations causes symptoms of PTSD, but not that many people have thought about typical civilian life where just not having basic necessities causes a series of traumatic events to occur.
In addition, PTSD is unique to each person. No two cases are alike. This can be frustrating to physicians because each person needs a distinctive treatment. Each individual has different triggers that cause him or her to react differently. It also matters when and how each event happened. There are many studies that suggest child abuse can lead to PTSD as an adult, thus typically factoring in to being homeless. Especially with young women that have been abused sexually, they have a higher chance of developing PTSD than youth males.
Another factor that hasn’t been well researched is how other external factors, such as drugs and alcohol, play into an individual ending up in a situation where there are homeless. Typically, if a child undergoes a hardship at home they turn to something else that will give them a ”numbness” feeling. In the end it just perpetuates the issue even farther eventually leading them into adult life with a disadvantage. For all these reasons explained, I think it is absolutely necessary to find some sort of solution for the homeless community.
