Abstract
The reduction in psychiatric beds over the past few decades has coincided with burgeoning homelessness in the UK. What effect has this had on the provision of in-patient care to this neglected section of the population? Admissions of people of ‘no fixed abode’ in Birmingham were compared for the years 1961–1964 and 1995–1996. Both the number of admissions and duration of in-patient episodes had decreased and many patients continued to receive no aftercare. Solutions to the problem of homelessness among the severely mentally ill must address failings in hospital as well as community services.
Highlights
The reduction in psychiatric beds over the past few decades has coincided with burgeoning homelessness in the UK
In Birmingham were compared for the years 1961-1964 and 1995-1996
Whatever the relationship between the two, the chronological juxtaposition of rising homelessness and falling bed numbers is likely to have had an impact on the provision of psychiatric inpatient care to homeless people
Summary
The size of the homeless population in the UK has grown rapidly over the past three decades while the proportion with severe mental illness has remained high (Scott, 1993). There is concern that some people with severe mental illness, including many who are homeless, have neither been adequately provided for in the community nor given sufficient access to increasingly limited hospital resources (Ritchie et al, 1994).
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