Homelessness, Employment & IDIOSYNCRATIC BRAINS

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman

Aurora mayor hones in on "work first" approach to homelessness in state of city speech -- The Denver Gazette

• I agree --- but like so many things --- if a lecture was going to fix it --- we wouldn't have a problem.
• We'd like to see more partnerships with Voc ReHab and others to make this the SUCCESS --- everyone wants it to be.
  

Unfortunately, Neuro-Diverse folks are over-represented in the chronically homeless population and that Neuro-Developmental Continuum is also a Psychiatric Continuum.

Addressing this has been hard to do --- but we have more understanding and tools then we ever have had before.

Idiosyncratic brains

"When researchers superimposed non-autistic brain scans on top of each other, the brains were all very similar.

"However, when the same thing was done to autistic brain scans, the autistic brains were all very different.

"The autistic brains all had areas of high and low connectivity, but no distinct areas of high and low connectivity were discernible.

"In other words, autistic people have more individualized, idiosyncratic connectivity patterns than controls do; each autistic brain differed from the norm, but each did so in its own way."

National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices & Systems

 October 2023

Screening for Autism Spectrum Condition Through Inner City Homeless Services in the Republic of Ireland

"These findings suggest a high estimate of autism prevalence and support emerging evidence that, people with autism are overrepresented in the homeless population, compared to housed populations.

"Autism may be a risk factor for entry into homelessness and a challenge to exiting homeless and engaging with relevant services."

Nov. 2016

Childhood Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Homelessness: A 33-Year Follow-Up Study

"Conclusion:

"Among boys of white ethnicity who were followed into adulthood, childhood ADHD was associated with an elevated rate of homelessness.

"Findings point to the need for clinical monitoring of childhood ADHD through adolescence, even when ADHD does not persist, in hopes of mitigating a cascade of malfunction that includes homelessness."