NCJ Number
136706
Journal
Journal of Adolescent Health Volume: 12 Issue: 7 Dated: special issue (November 1991) Pages: complete issue
Editor(s)
I F Litt
Date Published
1991
Length
95 pages
Annotation
A symposium on the health care of runaway and street youth recognized that the homeless population of many U.S. cities includes a substantial number of adolescents who depend on the street environment for livelihood, recreation, and a support structure of friendships and significant others.
Abstract
Juvenile prostitution, only one index of the number of adolescents on the street, increased steadily between 1969 and 1978. In 1982, about 559,000 homeless and runaway youth were identified through contacts with the police, courts, and publicly and privately supported agencies and shelters. A conservative estimate is that at least as many more runaways made no contact with reporting agencies. Despite an increasing number of homeless youth, only in the last 10 years has any significant attention been paid to their health status and health care needs. Investigators in the fields of adolescent medicine, nursing, social work, sociology, and anthropology have begun to study the social etiology of adolescent homelessness and to define the basic health status and health needs of the population. The West Coast Symposium on Health Care of Runaway and Street Youth, held in San Francisco in March 1990, looked at youth at risk for HIV infection, adaptation and survival in the AIDS decade, gay and lesbian homeless youth, planning and policymaking for homeless youth in Seattle, and birth outcomes of prostituting adolescents. Additional symposium topics covered effective intervention programs for runaway youth, effects of alternative street school on youth involved in prostitution, the Los Angeles system of care for runaway and homeless youth, outreach health services, an independent living program for homeless adolescents, an AIDS prevention program for homeless youth, and mental health issues. 215 references, 27 tables, and 16 figures