Is Mental Illness the real cause for homelessness?

Answer 1

There are many causes for homelessness-mental illness is one. Another is unemployment, or not making enough money on your full time job-some people consider food more important than housing,and rightfully so! These are just a few of the reasons for homelessness.

Answer 2

no but here is what i found out about ilnesses

Mental Illness: Approximately 20-25% of the single adult homeless population suffer from some form of severe and persistent mental illness (Koegel et al, 1996). Despite the disproportionate number of severely mentally ill people among the homeless population, increases in homelessness are not attributable to the release of severely mentally ill people from institutions. Most patients were released from mental hospitals in the 1950s and 1960s, yet vast increases in homelessness did not occur until the 1980s, when incomes and housing options for those living on the margins began to diminish rapidly. According to the Federal Task Force on Homelessness and Severe Mental Illness, only 5-7% of homeless persons with mental illness need to be institutionalized; most can live in the community with the appropriate supportive housing options (Federal Task Force on Homelessness and Severe Mental Illness, 1992). However, many mentally ill homeless people are unable to obtain access to supportive housing and/or other treatment services. The mental health support services most needed include case management, housing, and treatment.

You should check out the link I have.

Answer 3

There is no doubt that many, if not most, homeless people have mental illness. Homelessness may be the effect, however mental illness may not always be the cause.
Let us not rule out economics as a cause. A lot of people go bust and lose everything. Divorce is yet another cause. Bankruptcy, yet another. Hell, this list can go on and on, but a screw or two lose is probably the main reason for living in car board boxes.

Answer 4

I looked through all of these answers and I didn't see one person who based their "opinion/answer/observation" on ANY kind of experience.

During the winter months I volunteer at a county sponsored homeless shelter once a week or every other week depending on my schedule.

I have yet to meet anyone there at the homeless shelter who isn't either (a) suffering from a mental illness (b) suffering from a substance/alcohol abuse problem or (c) both. My personal observation... not some high school/community college circle discussion where everyone gets to blame Republicans, businesses and capitalism or people who dont "feel" enough like they do.

YOU ARE ALL HIGHLY ENCOURAGED TO VOLUNTEER WITH YOUR LOCAL HOMELESS SHELTER THIS YEAR.... THEN COME BACK NEXT YEAR AND POSE THE QUESTIONS, AND SEE HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THE ANSWERS THEN.

Some of you sound like you have strong "feelings" about homelessness.... DO something.... I'd love to hear from you and you may enjoy doing something thats bigger than you are.

Answer 5

You sound like me,I actually have such distinctive complications and issues are continuously taking position to me.definite with all the pressure you've been lower than for see you later that's conceivable that you've been misdiagnosed with a severe psychological ailment.when we are lower than very a lot of pressure for see you later now and again we commence having indications that a mentally unwell human being would have at the same time as actually that's largely all the pressure causing those indications.i don't think that you've bi-polar because my brother had it and that i have a grandson that has it,I actually have also huge-spread different individuals with bi polar and that they had very few of the indicators that you've.i imagine if in any respect conceivable you want to get yet another opinion.have you ever been examined for lupus or lyme ailment?If no longer element out this on your medical specialist so that you may do tests to rule those out.For the joint discomfort take a million,500 mg of calcium with nutrition D an afternoon and spot if that enables.I actually have severe joint discomfort and it quite facilitates me,if I commence slacking off my discomfort comes again.in case you're in menopause you receives evening sweats undesirable,i'd get up a minimum of two cases a evening and modify gowns and frequently sheets.Hormonal inbalance may reason you distinctive complications.you want to inform your rummy that you elect some style of discomfort meds and do not again off,stand your floor.i'm allergic to all discomfort meds and would't even take some thing after surgical procedures because my gadget is so reactive and that i does no longer choose all people to flow by what I do.i'm sorry that's see you later.God Bless You,you'd be in my prayers.

Answer 6

In response to one of the other answers, I don't know why anyone would choose to be homeless, unless they were delusional in some way....

The outcome of a person depends on several factors, including protective factors and risk factors: protective factors being things like having a supportive family, living in a good neighborhood, etc., etc., and risk factors being things like living in a bad neighborhood, not having support from family and friends, etc., basically the opposite of protective factors.

The outcome also depends on how resilient the person is - how mudh they can endure in the face of adverse circumstances. Two people can be in the same environment and face the same obstacles in life, but the threshhold to which they can handle everything affects the outcome. For example, one kid can have a low threshhold for resilience, and when their classmates make fun of them, they are emotionally hurt and don't do as well in school. Meanwhile, another kid can have a high threshhold for resilience and do well in school even if their classmates make fun of them, because they are able to ignore the bullying. Resilience, combined with protective and risk factors, determines the degree of success someone ultimately attains. Low resilience heightens the risk of not succeeding.

As for the notion that people become homeless because they are lazy....sure, there's probably some homeless people who are lazy, but I can think of a few people who are lazy asses as well but are living it up because they have the protective factor of daddy's money...or whatever. Likewise, there are homeless people who are NOT lazy but have ended up where they are because of other the factors involved. So the correlation between laziness and homelessness has no basis, and it is the interaction between risk/protective factors and resilience that is important. My conclusion about the laziness thing is: some homeless people are lazy, and some not homeless people are lazy as well. Similary, mental illness is one of the risk factors that can POSSIBLY lead to homelessness.

There is a mental illness that directly results in higher rates of homelessness. Everyone knows about the so-called "pack rats" who keep a huge amount of things in their house - up to the point that it's hard to walk from room to room. Compusive hoarding and cluttering symptoms are similar to those of OCD, such as believing that one must do something or face some sort of consequence. Thus, these hoarders and clutterers are at a high risk for eviction. This goes to show that someone can even have many protective factors, i.e. being a hard worker who is unlazy, but end up homeless because of their hoarding and cluttering.

Anyway, I rambled on for awhile. Sorry about that. It's just that I would like more people to know about these things.

Answer 7

I would say circumstances are the biggest factor. A mentally challenged person can have a home and a happy life. And a totally mentally fine person could make wrong choices and be the victim of circumstances and thus be homeless.

Answer 8

ever notice that there are no lazy RICH people who are homeless? that's because the rich can afford the pills and the friends and the relatives to make sure they don't end up on the streets. ever notice that the greatest percentage of lazy people is among the children of the very wealthy? (not to say that the Bush twins are lazy, I'm sure they work hard at being that stupid).

therefore, it's clear that the homeless are that way because:
- they have no rich relatives or friends
- their rich relatives and friends aren't generous
- they can't afford the health care for their schizophrenia
- OR -
they enjoy living a filthy, extremely dangerous, miserable life because it's just so much fun to be "lazy"

Answer 9

I honestly feel the economy and society are to blame for it. There is a definite stigma that associates the homeless with mental illness, namely, schizophrenia. Some symptoms of the most common type of schizophrenia are paranoia, delusions, hallucinations, and odd manner of speech. However, if one was thrown onto the streets and left to fend for oneself in this world, I'm sure he or she would develop some of the aforementioned characteristcs, even if just on a sub-clinical level. We might perceive the homeless as psychotic (i.e. unable to distinguish reality from fantasy) by brief and often cursory observation, but we are unaware of their thoughts or conscious awareness. I'm sure several of them are sane but are seen as otherwise because of idiosycrasies or wariness of others. In fact, it is been theorized that many diagnosed with schizophrenia may actually be bipolar (manic depressive), but biased mental health professionals associate the impoverished with said illness. People of higher socioeconomic standings are diagnosed as bipolar when they might be schizophrenic to avoid that same stigma of being "insane."
Sorry to go off on a tangent there, but I do believe there are other factors that need to be taken into consideration. There are simply not enough jobs, and not enough is being done to take care of the homeless, to clothe them, feed them, shelther them, educate them, and show them that they are actually worth something.

Answer 10

Not in all cases, in many cases it is a result of financial difficulties, people losing jobs, being evicted from their homes, this leaves them with no set address, no place to get mail, no address to give if they go to apply for a job, no telephone, it's a vicious cycle. In the case of mental illness, these are people who have sadly slipped through the cracks of the system, it's tragic really.