Card Sort Reflection

To piggyback on Sarah’s prior blog post on the card sort, I wanted to note a key takeaway for the responses we received ranking the importance of “resources.” Oak Lawn, which is a local institution in Elkhart that provides mental health and addiction treatment services, was ranked last on the list. We found this interesting because of the large percentage of the South Bend homeless population that struggles with mental health and addiction issues. Our focus group noted the importance of immediate resources, like Social Services and Soup Kitchens, but they did not value the longer-term solutions as highly. Obviously immediate resources are necessary for day-to-day survival, but it was interesting to see a significantly decreased emphasis on the importance of the long-term horizon. Their list of responses definitely begs the question, “Is this homeless group not seeking attention for mental health and addiction issues? Or is it too difficult to both seek attention and get by day-to-day?”