The Most Prevalent Health Disorders Affecting the Unhoused Population

by Rachel Perez

Findings on the relationship of the unhoused population and mental disorders has been discovered through the work of a meta analysis, focusing on the years of 2006-2021. Noteworthy interventions, treatments plans, diagnosis patterns, and statistics have been discovered by this research in order to be implemented in the growth of the homeless population's mental health care. 

With the combination of 39 studies, and a total of 8,049 homeless individuals, examined in this research a pattern of similar mental illnesses were presented. The most common diagnostic category found in the homeless population was alcohol use disorders. This was found in 36.7% of the research combined. Following this category is drug use disorders, with 21.7% of the participants dealing with this disorder. Major depression is found to be in 12.6% of the participants. The last frequent disorder found within this research is schizophrenia, with 12.4% of homeless individuals facing this.   

There are further discoveries within criminal behavior, perceived discrimination, prolonged curses of homelessness, and victimization holding a relationship with homeless people that have been diagnosed with a mental disorder. This can be due to many ongoing factors that are not in favor of treating the homeless population that need proper health care, and especially mental health care. Many of the common conditions within this population are treatable. Another contribution that leads to the ongoing negative impacts in this population is the noticeably low alcohol tax in some high income countries, such as Germany. Taking this element into account, it is possible to make the association of these countries impact the homeless populations coping strategies to turn to substance abuse. However, this association can also be redirected in ways of substance abuse being the contribution to current lack of housing predicaments. One other factor that was observed from this research is that only 13 of the 39 studies mentioned participants having access to shelters, hostels, or residential care. This is a high concern, given participants have a right to these resources but are not reaching them. 

This collaborative analysis has led to the conclusion public health and policy interventions are a significant need for this population to reach the resources meant for them to utilize. Intensive care management, assertive community treatment, public policy changes, and critical time interventions are approaches to take the first step in treating a population that deserves the benefits of treatment.

References:

Gutwinski, S., Schreiter, S., Deutscher, K., & Fazel, S. (2021). The prevalence of mental disorders among homeless people in high-income countries: An updated systematic review and meta-regression analysis. PLoS medicine, 18(8), e1003750. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003750