Wohnungslos und psychisch krank

Abstract

There are about 200,000 homeless persons in Germany, 35,000 of them living on the streets. They suffer from unemployment, poverty, social isolation and physical impairments. More than two-thirds of them suffer from mental illness as well. Substance abuse predominates, but also schizophrenic and affective disorders and personality disorders show a higher prevalence than among the general population. Comorbidity is found frequently. However, mental disorders are just one of several factors contributing to the process of becoming homeless. Due to the complex combination of mental, physical, social and economic problems of the homeless mentally ill psychiatric care is not sufficient. Yet recent US studies show that a combination of multimodal clinical measures and a network of outpatient assistance can improve both physical and mental health and the social situation. Having established reliable epidemiological data, future research should concentrate on analysing the influence of homelessness on mental health, and on planning and evaluating specific programmes for the homeless mentally ill.

Homelessness and associated factors over a 13-year period among psychiatric in-patients in Berlin, Germany: routine data analysis

“…1,3,4 Compared with the nonhomeless population, being homeless significantly increases the risk of having mental and physical health problems, thus increasing morbidity and mortality. 2,[5][6][7] A recent meta-analysis of mental illness among homeless people in Western countries found a mean prevalence of at least one current mental disorder of 76.2%, the most common mental conditions being alcohol use disorder (36.7%), drug use disorder (21.7%) and schizophrenia spectrum disorder (12.4%). 8 This highly exceeds prevalence rates among the general population.…”

“…Homelessness is a rising social and healthcare challenge in Western countries. 1,2 People who are homeless are an often marginalised group experiencing various forms of discrimination, such as social exclusion and a lack of health insurance, income, social support and access to the healthcare system. 1,3,4 Compared with the non-homeless population, being homeless significantly increases the risk of having mental and physical health problems, thus increasing morbidity and mortality.…”

Threatened homelessness and mental disorders

“…Ein Mangel an sozialpsychiatrischen oder -epidemiologischen Forschungsaktivitäten wird auch und gerade an der psychiatrischen Wohnungslosenforschung in Deutschland deutlich [8,10,22,23,[33][34][35]. Obwohl diese geradezu ein ideales sozialpsychiatrisches Forschungsparadigma darstellt [17], beschränkt sie sich weitgehend auf einige wenige Präva-lenzstudien an selektiven bzw.…”

Versorgung obdachloser und wohnungsloser psychisch kranker Männer in der Kommune - eine kontrollierte Interventionsstudie

“…Das Wohnen unter Gleichgesinnten oder allein kommt der Angst vor Stigmatisierung entgegen. Bei diesem Ergebnis kommt si− cherlich auch zum Ausdruck was Kellinghaus et al[32] als An− passungsprozess an die Lebensumstände beschreiben. Ein Über− leben unter derartigen Bedingungen scheint leichter, wenn die Lebensform als ¹freiwillige" Entscheidung angenommen wird.…”