Losing Your Home Can Make You Sick

Newswise — If losing your house isn’t bad enough, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that homeowners in default or foreclosure exhibited poorer mental health and more physical symptoms than renters, homeowners with moderate housing strain, and homeowners with no housing strain. To make matters worse, those in financial straits might not have access to healthcare professionals, which may further impede their ability to change their circumstances.

“Distressed homeowners whose health is impaired may face particular challenges as they attempt to improve their financial situations,” wrote senior author and nursing professor Terri Lipman, PhD, RN, and colleagues in the influential journal Nursing Outlook this month. “Medical care and appropriate counseling may be necessary to enable distressed homeowners to seek, obtain, and sustain employment.”

Based on their 2008 Internet survey of nearly 800 residents in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Florida -- the states accounting for 51 percent of all foreclosure filings that year -- the researchers recommend “bundling” services at one site of intervention, such as foreclosure courts or housing counseling agencies, for this vulnerable population. Nurses in particular, the researchers note, “are well-suited to provide screening, counseling, care, and referrals for distressed homeowners whose health is impaired.”

“The unprecedented volume of mortgage defaults and foreclosures represents an important and under-recognized population health issue,” the researchers reported. The authors note that health care access “may be limited for distressed homeowners” and recommend that in addition to financial counseling and social services, distressed homeowners may benefit from health screenings and referral to coordinated, affordable health services.

More broadly, the authors emphasize, nurses can be “important advocates for health-relevant policy responses to the housing crisis.”

The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is one of the premier research institutions in nursing, producing new knowledge in geriatrics, pediatrics, oncology, quality-of-life choices, and other areas. Researchers here consistently receive more research funding from the National Institutes of Health than any other private nursing school, and many Master’s programs are ranked first in the country. This year, faculty, students, alumni, and staff celebrate 125 years of nursing at Penn.