engleski

Homelessness in Croatia: who needs researches at all?

The problem of homelessness were a few years ago dealt with the rare experts and scientists in Croatia. For the first time in 2011, the Law on Social Welfare of the Republic of Croatia defines homelessness and regulates rights of homeless people. At the same time, discussions were held among the professional community about who is homeless person. It also tried to get answers to the questions: How many homeless are in Croatia? What are the characteristics of the homeless? What do homeless people need? How should the social welfare system approach this problem? What is the role of social work with homeless people? These were the questions that prompted the implementation of the first comprehensive study of homelessness in Croatia conducted by scientists, social workers from Department of Social Work, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb. The study was conducted with the purpose to gain insight into the complete picture of the characteristics and status of homeless people, increase professional and public awareness and sensibility for needs and problems of this social group and create a database that can serve social policy creators in formulating concrete measures and services for the homeless. The main objective of the study was to identify determinants of the homeless people position in Croatia and to gain more complete understanding of the experience of life as homeless through personal experience of causes, needs and problems, employability and factors that are perceived as necessary to get out of homelessness. This presentation will present main results on the characteristics of homelessness in Croatia. However, the presentation will be focused to the opening and reflecting on the issues: to whom and in what way the research findings can be used and how can the social welfare system take advantage of the results?

homelessness ; researches in social work ; evidence based practice ; sensibility for people who experienced living in homelessness

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