Recent world events have left many citizens facing life in a very different demographic. Formerly middle-class citizens may suddenly find themselves facing the stress and pressure of low-income families. As housing, food, and gas prices rise, even those with a solid financial footing have less left over for healthcare.
Psychological Support
Poverty is incredibly stressful as all low-income families know only too well. Families that have a long history of generational poverty may also have limited access to
- healthy food choices
- safe outdoor play areas
- stable housing
A life of chronic stress will ultimately take a toll on your body and your mind. Worse, those facing the pressures of poverty will make short-term financial choices that lead to long-term health damage.
When someone is emotionally overloaded or struggling with mental health issues, the first step may be SAMHSA. A visit to the SAMHSA website can help you find effective support in your area, both for mental health concerns and addiction services.
Health Support For Children
Grocery prices have gone through the roof if many parts of the United States, particularly for those who eat meat-based proteins. For those who must have meat, the dollars available for fruits and vegetables may have been wiped out. However, help is available.
Those seeking access to fruits and veggies in any form may have luck at local food banks. There are many farms and orchards outside cities that allow and even invite in gleaners. To effectively glean, you need to visit farms and orchards after the harvest is done and collect the produce that wasn’t picked or picked up during the main harvest.
Gleaners can, with permission, pick up fruit that was dropped in the harvest. Potatoes, freshly dug, may get left in the field. Anything that grows on a vine might be left behind. Get permission and, if the farmer and their helpers are around, ask questions. Make sure you thank them and bring them a treat from your gleanings if you have the chance. Some families make this part of their entertainment time. If you visited a pumpkin patch in better times, gleaning can be a similar experience.
Special Help For Seniors
Senior citizens who live with or close to their children can contribute to the overall health of the family. By pairing an adult child’s income with social security benefits, a family may be able to afford a better house in a safer neighborhood.
There are many programs for senior citizens that can get them out of the house and back into the world for better mental health. An isolated senior citizen can sign up for the Silver Sneakers program.
As a Silver Sneakers member, you can visit a local gym, take a dance class or learn to safely lift weights, walk on the track, shower, get a cup of coffee and make new connections. For any senior suffering the burden of loneliness, this membership can turn into a daily outing that offers both friendship and a break on their utility bills.
Silver Sneakers is covered by some Medicare plans. If you have the Medicare Advantage Plan, make sure you also check out the Medicare give-back plans, which offer premium reductions to citizens on some versions of the Medicare Advantage Plan. Medicare is constantly changing; be sure you talk to your representative when your plan updates about your giveback availability.
Pregnant Women And Infants
Because health insurance is tied to employment in the United States, many pregnant women and those with newborns find themselves doubly burdened; without affordable childcare, finding work is challenging, but without a job, they have limited access to healthcare.
There are many programs that offer food support to families with young children, such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program. There are also private agencies that offer support to low-income families in need of the basics of baby care, such as the National Diaper Bank Network.
Families that can’t afford diapers can’t send their babies to daycare. They may not be able to take the baby out for a doctor’s visit or take the baby with them for a social services appointment. Rising diaper costs and localized diaper shortages have left many families feeling shamed that they cannot provide for their infant, which raises their stress levels.
Support For School-Aged Children
Healthy food is critical to a healthy body. There are logical connections in place when it comes to helping a family access free or low-cost foods; for example, a family that qualifies for SNAP benefits automatically has access to free or reduced meal plans. In many states, getting unemployment benefits also qualifies you for these benefits.
Schools also offer supportive health services; for example, students will have access to vision and hearing tests and flu shots in some cases. In addition to health screenings, school-aged children will also receive instruction on healthy exercise habits, making good food choices, and hygiene.
Many schools offer a free breakfast as well as a free lunch. While not all of these meals are to the child’s taste, most of the free food offered through these meal plans is nutritious and supportive of a child’s overall health.
Support For Low-Income Adults
A serious lack of healthcare support for low-income families is found when reviewing the health of adult relationships. It helps to think of the stability of a low-income household as a three-legged stool. The household is held up by
- the primary breadwinner’s job (traditionally the male)
- the secondary income (traditionally the female)
- the relationship itself
Take away one leg and the stool falls. If the three legs can hang on, the household can generally weather whatever comes, from high prices to a new baby to a vehicle repair.
However, healthy support for the adult relationship may be hard to find. For couples under a lot of money stress, it’s easy to blame the other partner and slowly destroy the relationship. Poverty in the developed world is a slow and crushing pressure; because you can’t make enough to save, you spend each day waiting for the next financial challenge that will either make your life even harder or completely wipe you out. If you don’t have a healthy relationship with an adult partner, the whole household teeters.
Good health is about much more than doctor visits, though preventive care is certainly a necessity for everyone in the household. Quality food, sufficient exercise, and the necessary hygiene products are also a requirement.
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