Depression does not discriminate. It affects everyone without regard to religion, culture, age, and gender, among many other categories. Although depression is everywhere, today I want to focus on depression and homelessness, which can include many of its own challenges.
According to NAMI, around 26% of homeless adults staying in shelters live with serious mental illness. Around 46% live with severe mental illness and/or substance use disorders. This comprises a large number of the homeless population. And you may wonder, what comes first? Does someone with mental illness end up homeless, or does homelessness lead to things such as depression? I am not sure if there is any solid data on it, but my guess is that it goes both ways. To me, homelessness is a huge stress that may just lead to depression. However, if you are so depressed you can’t get out of bed, you may end up getting kicked out of your living space. Regardless, this is a serious concern.
Unfortunately, I can’t do justice when speaking about this topic, because although I think I might know what is going on, I may be very wrong. What I do know, though, is that depression (or any mental illness) and homelessness requires more help. How do we attend to their mental health needs when more basic needs are not being met? Will the mental illness be improved by helping with basic needs? There are a lot of concerns here, and I struggle to know what the answers are. However, an important piece is to understand how prevalent this issue is. Once we realize how much this is happening, we can start to talk about it and come up with solutions.
What do you think? Did you realize there was so much mental illness in the homeless population? What are your thoughts on how we can help this group of people?