How Personality Disorders Affect the Homeless Essay

The lack of mental health services available to the mentally-ill and the deinstitutionalization of mental health hospitals have created a public health concern. These issues along with a failed continuum of care plans and a lack of community mental health services have been major contributing factors to homelessness. In addition, the strict guidelines for psychiatric hospitalization are critical when analyzing homelessness. In many cases, only the critically ill are meeting clinical criteria for hospitalization, leaving those who have significant mental health problems to fend for themselves. The link between homelessness and mental health is acknowledged but requires reform.

Other housing needs for the mentally ill include specialized in- house primary care, health promotion programmes, open access mental services (accessible to all at any time, missed appointments are also tolerated), assertive management, street based service provision, holistic and generalist support apart from just clinical diagnosis, talking therapies and full access to mainstream services. Most importantly, the housed mentally ill persons have to be shielded from becoming homeless again. Such assurance that they will forever have a comfortable place to stay will relax their minds. This will go a long way in promoting their mental well being (Randall et al. 2006).

The homeless are the epitome of vulnerable. Alone, defenseless, and exposed. A person being alone and on the streets can begin to develop mental issues. They have no friends/family to talk to and confide in. A person who is already weak from the homeless lifestyle can be attacked by anyone; other homeless people fighting for their life or the unjust people of this world. This could leave them injured without aid. The world can be a harsh place, and being exposed to the weather can be the worst factor. The summers can be boiling hot and the winters cold as

Homelessness is often accompanied by many other problems such as mental disorders, substance abuse issues, isolation from family and friends, and poor general health. Often time’s people that suffer from homelessness experience a lower quality of life than those who have a place to call home.

Mental illness has played a pretty big role on homeless people and families. Researchers have said that most homeless people across the United States suffer from a mental illness. In the book The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls, there were multiple signs of mental illness within the author's parents. Homelessness can be caused by many reasons, but one of the main reasons for homelessness is mental illness. It is very likely that a person could have a mental illness before becoming homeless.

The homeless are impacted far more by everyday issues than those who are not. Often times, homeless children can be sick four times as much as middle class children and have superior rates of acute and recurring illnesses. In addition, they experience emotional and behavioral problems can hinder with learning at almost three times the rate of other children. “Homeless children between 6 and 17 years struggle with high rates of mental health problems. For example, 47% have problems

Homelessness has been a major issue for the past hundred years often due to economic struggles, the closure of asylums in the Sixties and Seventies, and mental illness. Substance abuse often goes hand in hand with homelessness although there is debate as to which comes first. More over a number of individuals not only suffer from homelessness and substance abuse but also mental illness as well. This population struggles to have their basic needs of food and shelter met, so receiving adequate treatment for substance abuse and mental illness is often difficult. Two main treatment modalities are currently used when working with this population: abstinence and harm reduction. However, often treatment programs do not treat both mental illness and substance abuse. Community programs which meet homeless individual’s needs and practitioners who take the time to develop a healthy therapeutic relationship are the best chances of helping a homeless individual get clean.

Children that do not have homes grow up at risk for diseases that are not a threat to the general part of the nation. Illnesses such as whooping cough or tuberculosis that seem so rare in society are commonly found in homeless shelters. These children have not been given their vaccines over the years and therefore are not allowed to attend school. The homeless children that do attend school are sometimes as far behind as two grade levels. Many of the children are very hungry and tired which makes it almost impossible for them to concentrate. Other children are embarrassed to go to school because the other children know their situation and ridicule them. Sometimes a teacher might even keep away from a child that they believe to be dirty or may be sick. Most of these children are. They do not smell good because they do not take baths. They grow up being outcasts (Connolly, 2000).

The problems of homelessness and mental illness are inextricably intertwined. One way that mental illness impacts people's lives is that it oftentimes renders them unable to carry out the functions of daily life, such as keeping a job, paying their bills, and managing a household. In addition to disrupting the events of daily life, mental illness "may also prevent people from forming and maintaining stable relationships or cause people to misinterpret others' guidance and react irrationally" (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2009). What this means is that a population that is already vulnerable because of an inability to consistently manage self-care lacks the same safety net as much of the rest of society.

A Pathways Project study found that two out of three homeless people in the country suffer from a form of chronic mental illness for which they need treatment (Wells, 2009). Secondly, socioeconomic adversity includes shortages such as low education, job loss, and eviction (Bradford, 2009). Lastly, traumatic experiences such as domestic violence causing psychological trauma are a predisposition to homelessness (Bradford, 2009).

Although surveys have been conducted defending that mental illness does cause homelessness. There are several arguments that personal disabilities such as mental illness, alcoholism, drug abuse and physical or mental handicaps are not the primary causes of homelessness. While these conditions make people more vulnerable to

There are many effects that a homeless person may suffer from. Other than the obvious change in the person’s life style, such as the type and quality of clothing they wear or their mode of transportation, homeless people are subject to various health effects as well. In recent studies it has been found that one out of every three homeless people suffers from some sort of mental illness. The mental illness may have been the reason the person became homeless or they may have acquired the illness from living on the streets. When a person loses everything they have worked for it may affect them mentally. Another common effect that homeless people suffer from is Nutritional deficiency, better know as malnutrition. A homeless person’s diet is considerably different than that of someone who is not homeless. Since they cannot afford to eat out or make a home cooked meal, they often have to dig in trash cans to find left over food from restaurants or other people. A lot of the food they eat is spoiled or rotten and is not healthy for them, but rotten food is better than no food.

The primary causes of chronic homelessness include poverty, disability, mental illness, along with substance abuse or addiction. Poverty is a challenging but is a doable cycle to break and becomes progressively difficult to get out once you begin to fall behind a specific income level. Once people reach that point they are then usually not able to obtain the proper resources for the acquired knowledge and resources that are necessary for a higher paying job. Disability affects an immense percentage of the homeless. This is frequently caused by an injury that prevents them from working numerous jobs within their societies and without their dependable

Poor physical and mental health is one principal cause that leads to homeless. Often those who spend extended amounts of time without a home have untreated mental and physical issues that prevent them from the ability to survive on their own. One common physiological disorder is depression, which is widespread among a large percentage of the homeless. Physical injuries are a disability that can keep many homeless from finding or keeping a job in addition to the addiction of drugs and alcohol. Substance abuse is frequent among the homeless, and these addicts have problems functioning in public and keeping a stable and healthy lifestyle. After coming back from the military, some veterans develop post-traumatic stress disorder, an issue that can make them mentally unstable, and in some cases result in no place to live. The homeless often lack adequate access to health care while they have a much higher rate of health issues.

To begin with, individual conditions are major causes of homelessness, and they are quite numerous. For instance, the past of the individuals could be packed with shocking events. Some people have really hard time getting over them, and they always cause them many psychological or physical problems that may hinder their development in life. Shocking events may include loss of job or money. Research (as cited in Gowan, 2010) shows that 22.61% of homeless people are not working seriously to earn enough money. In addition, personal crises, whether social or economic have a huge impact on the individual’s present situation. If someone faces bankruptcy they have a higher chance of facing homelessness in the future. Also, mental illness