A Qualitative Exploration of the Spatial Needs of Homeless Drug Users L

With homelessness levels rapidly increasing in the UK (Fitzpatrick et al., 2012), the necessity for a study analysing the spatial needs of homeless individuals who suffer from drug abuse and are housed in hostels/night shelters was paramount. The task of the critical appraisal is to firstly, summarise the research article A Qualitative Exploration of the Spatial Needs of Homeless Drug Users Living in Hostels and Night Shelters (2013), discuss the methodology presented throughout it and further examine if whether it was appropriate for the topic. Towards the end, the research findings will be discussed and an assessment of whether the article is beneficial for the housing sector or not, will be provided, along with any possible recommendations. The subject matter of the aforementioned journal article is an exploration of a sub-category of homeless individuals, namely drug users homeless. The correlation between homelessness and drug abuse and the vicious impact that each issues has on the other one, is sought throughout the article, reinforcing the need to tackle each one separately in order to reach an effective end result. After defining terms such as homelessness, drug use and night shelters, it continues to present a seven-fold categorisation of spatial needs that seem to not be met entirely by homeless accommodation providers. It argues that, according to Fitzpatrick and LaGory (2000), every individual requires a sense of privacy, safety, personal space and reasonable human interaction in order to maintain a healthy life and follows to provide definitions for the concepts of privacy and personal space. After presenting the layout of the article, it proceeds to discuss the methods applied for its research analysis and i ntrodu... ... Greg Guest, Emily E. Namey, Marilyn L. Mitchell (2013) Collecting Qualitative Data, A Field Manual for Applied Research, Sage Publications Given, L.M. (2008) The Sage Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Sage Publications Markle, D. T., Richard E. West & Peter J. Rich, Markle, D. Thomas; West, Richard E. & Rich, Peter J. (2011). Beyond Transcription: Technology, Change, and Refinement of Method [49 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 12(3), Art. 21, Wholey, J.S., Hatry H.P., Newcomer K.E. (eds.) (2004) Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation , 2nd Edition. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass Patton, M.K (2002) Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods, 3rd Edition. Sage Publications . Maslow, A. H., A theory of human motivation Psychological Review, 50(4), Jul 1943, pp. 370-396. doi: 10.1037/h0054346