Illuminating Unhoused Patients' Experiences Within the Philadelphia Healthcare System

• About Us
• / News

Neha Shetty ('24) is a Health and Societies major who conducted research on the injustice and prejudice encountered by people experiencing homelessness (PEH) in the healthcare system. The project was supported by the Association of Alumnae Rosemary D. Mazzatenta Scholars Award. She was mentored by Dr. Laura Sinko (from Temple University) and Dr. Anne Teitelman (from the School of Nursing).

Many of the individuals that I consider family here in Philadelphia are the people that I help serve at Prevention Point Philadelphia, which is a nonprofit organization that provides harm reduction services to communities in Philadelphia and the surrounding area. Over the three years working in this space, I’ve learned about their families, their struggles, their childhoods, the going-ons in their communities and even about the mundane moments throughout their day. I have grown close to many of these individuals, and many of them call me to update me about new progressions in their life, whether it be a recent hospital visit or an admission to a rehabilitation program. In a way, both their issues and joyous moments have become my own, and I wanted to center this project around these moments, highlighting lived experiences, recommendations and commentary directly from people of this community.

At Prevention Point, most of the individuals that we help serve suffer from opioid use disorder, homelessness, and other health issues, which have had far-reaching implications in the way they are treated in almost all spaces that they frequent. Through our conversations, many patients have recalled painful experiences while receiving medical care - one participant told me that “[their] doctors acted like they didn’t deserve medical care because they didn’t have a roof over their head” and that “[medical professionals] did not treat [them] like a human, they refused to see past [their] addiction and personal trauma.” Many of the patients I’ve talked to have even fled from the hospital or have put off attending appointments for months, expressing that their providers characterized them in untrue ways, disrespected their autonomy, and violated their sense of dignity.

These retellings of injustice and prejudice encountered by people experiencing homelessness (PEH) in the healthcare system have been the inspiration for this self-driven research initiative. In this project, I used photo-experiencing and reflective listening (PEARL), a trauma-informed photo-elicitation interview approach, to document the lived experiences of PEH when preparing for, engaging with, and reflecting on their interactions with professionals in healthcare spaces.

Neha presenting a poster on this research project at AcadamyHealth's Annual Research Meeting in Seattle, Washington.

It was incredibly important to me to incorporate the feedback of unhoused individuals and community workers in the design of the research questions and thematic analysis of this project. This study, from conception to completion, was framed to (1) collect this information using trauma-informed approaches (2) respect the value of lived experiences to guide recommendations and (3) partner with communities to design and development of the research process.

I have learned an incredible amount about planning and organizing the various aspects of this project, such as the IRB submission process, recruitment, data collection, qualitative interviewing, and thematic analysis of transcripts. Being able to complete and lead each of these stages has provided me with an immense amount of respect and gratitude for the detailed and intensive process of community-engaged research. This project has given me the opportunity to weave together my passions for harm reduction and community-engaged research, and I hope that it will illuminate the issues that unhoused communities in Philadelphia face. - Neha Shetty

Interested in reading more first-hand accounts about undergraduate research? Check out the other experiences featured on our Student News Page and Social Media!

Related Articles