cultural climate in which their diverse patients live and that climate’s role in accommodating or marginalizing them. Moreover, healthcare professionals will provide better care for their patients if they develop a better understanding of how they personally are accommodated and marginalized by American culture. Race, ethnicity, and immigration Poverty Poverty is often a consequence of immigrants having fled war zones, disaster areas, and regions of extreme high unemployment. More recently, the COVID-19 global pandemic shifted the trend in poverty rates which had been declining for a decade. Following the 2008 world financial crisis, U.S. poverty rates peaked in 2010 at 15.1% before steadily declining to a rate of an historic low of 10.5% in 2019 (Statista Research Department, 2022). Beginning in 2020, the official poverty rate was 11.4%, up 1% from 2019 which marked the first annual increase since 2009. In 2020, there were 37.2 million people in poverty, about 3.3 million more than in 2019 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020). However, poverty is not equally distributed throughout the American population. According to new research, 74.7 million people have lost work since the start of the pandemic, with the majority of jobs lost in industries that were already paying below- average wages. Many who lost work and income are running out of money and savings. In January 2022, some 24 million adults reported experiencing hunger, and more than six million said they feared being evicted or foreclosed on in the next two months due to their inability to make rent or mortgage payments. Living in a stressful state of poverty can lead to an increase or onset of psychological distress. The instability that often accompanies mental illness can also lead to poverty. The cycle continues and grows as more people find themselves reeling from the pandemic's physical, financial, and emotional impacts. By contrast, higher-income people have been relatively unscathed economically (Human Rights Watch, 2022), and certain groups are disproportionately impacted by poverty. Women, children, and racial and ethnic minorities experience poverty more often than men, working adults, and White people, and individuals with disabilities experience poverty more often than those without current disabilities (Institute on Disability, 2020; U.S. Census Bureau, 2020). The unequal distribution of poverty across the population reflects the disparities in opportunities these subpopulations experience throughout their lives. Some examples of the disparity of opportunities include a disproportionate number of racial and ethnic minorities living in low- income neighborhoods and experiencing insufficient educational opportunity as well as women continuing to earn less than men (the most current data show that women earn 83 cents for each dollar men earn; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022). Evidence-based practice! Research shows that the poverty rate in the U.S. is increasing. Healthcare professionals must be aware of data relating to poverty and work to decrease the growing problem of poverty. Key points related to income and poverty in the U.S. include the following (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020): ● Between 2019 and 2020, the poverty rate increased for non-Hispanic Whites and Hispanics. Among non- Hispanic Whites, 8.2% were in poverty in 2020, while Hispanics had a poverty rate of 17.0%. Among the major racial groups examined in the Census Bureau’s report, Blacks had the highest poverty rate (19.5%) but did not
status are only a few of the facets of diversity that affect patients. Other facets of diversity include socioeconomic status, disability, sexual orientation, religion, and gender identification. These facets of diversity can serve as dimensions that marginalize and/or oppress patients as well.
experience a significant change from 2019. The poverty rate for Asians (8.1%) in 2020 was not statistically different from 2019. ● Poverty rates for people under the age of 18 increased from 14.4% in 2019 to 16.1% in 2020. Poverty rates also increased for people ages 18 to 64, from 9.4% in 2019 to 10.4% in 2020. The poverty rate for people ages 65 and older was 9.0% in 2020, which was not statistically different from 2019. ● Between 2019 and 2020, poverty rates increased for married-couple families and families with a woman not working outside the home. The poverty rate for married- couple families increased from 4.0% in 2019 to 4.7% in 2020. In families that the woman did not work outside the home, the poverty rate increased from 22.2% to 23.4%. The poverty rate for families that the man did not work outside the home was 11.4% in 2020, which was not statistically different from 2019. Income data from the Census Bureau include the following information (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020): ● Median household income was $67,521 in 2020, a decrease of 2.9% from the 2019 median of $69,560. This is the first statistically significant decline in median household income since 2011. ● The 2020 real median incomes of family households and nonfamily households decreased 3.2% and 3.1%, respectively, from their 2019 estimates. ● The 2020 real median household incomes of non- Hispanic Whites, Asians, and Hispanics decreased from their 2019 medians, while the changes for Black households were not statistically significant. ● In 2020, real median household incomes decreased 3.2% in the Midwest and 2.3% in the South and the West from their 2019 medians. The change for the Northeast was not statistically significant. Women in poverty More women than men are living in poverty in the U.S. Men who migrate for employment or to avoid conscripted military work often leave women behind. Migrating across hundreds of miles and difficult terrain is often not feasible for women and children. Basic information about women in poverty includes the following (Bleiweis et al., 2020): ● Of the 38.1 million people living in poverty in 2018, 56%, or 21.4 million, were women. ● Nearly 10 million women live in deep poverty, which is defined as falling below 50% of the federal poverty line. ● The highest rates of poverty are experienced by American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) women, Black women, and Latinas. About one in four AIAN women live in poverty. This is the highest rate of poverty among women or men of any racial or ethnic group. ● Unmarried mothers have higher rates of poverty than married women, with or without children, and unmarried women without children. Nearly 25% of unmarried mothers live below the poverty line. ● In 2018, there were 11.9 million children under the age of 18 living in poverty. This accounts for 31.1% of those living in poverty.
Book Code: SWUS1525
Page 6
EliteLearning.com/Social-Work
Powered by FlippingBook