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Previous Homelessness as a Risk Factor for Recovery from Serious Mental Illnesses

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Abstract

This paper argues that the experience of homelessness is inherently traumatic and thus has the potential to affect the manifestation of mental illness. The experiences related to being homeless might act as specific and unique sources of vulnerability. This study included 424 people diagnosed with serious mental illnesses living in supported housing programs in South Carolina. Three hierarchical regression analyses measuring the impact of homelessness on three types of outcomes revealed the following: (1) ever experiencing homelessness as well as the amount of time spent homeless were related to higher levels of psychiatric distress, (2) ever experiencing homelessness was related to higher levels of reported alcohol use, and (3) total amount of time spent homeless was related to lower perceived recovery from mental illness. These findings suggest that experiencing homelessness might contribute to psychosocial vulnerability to negative mental health outcomes. Future investigations examining this concept of risk and vulnerability as a result of homelessness are in order.

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Notes

  1. Serious mental illness is a term used to describe severe and persistent psychiatric disability that generally has a profound impact upon a person’s behavior, cognition, affect, and social functioning (Kloos 2010). Diagnoses that pertain to this definition tend to include psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, as well as debilitating mood disorders, including bipolar disorder, severe major depression, and depression with psychotic features.

  2. The homelessness variables were entered as predictors in regression models, and therefore the results are described as such in this section; however, the authors acknowledge that the data were cross-sectional and therefore these results do not necessarily imply causation. The interpretation of these findings is clarified in the "Discussion" section.

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Acknowledgments

Preparation of this manuscript was supported by funding from the National Institute of Mental Health—K23-MH65439. Thanks are extended to staff and consumers of the South Carolina Department of Mental Health who were partners in conducting this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, 1512 Pendleton Street, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Jennifer Castellow & Bret Kloos

  2. Department of Psychology, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR, 97207, USA

    Greg Townley

Authors
  1. Jennifer Castellow
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  2. Bret Kloos
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  3. Greg Townley
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Correspondence to Jennifer Castellow.

Additional information

This study is part of a larger project investigating the relationships between housing environments and adaptive functioning for persons with serious and persistent mental illnesses living in supported housing.

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Castellow, J., Kloos, B. & Townley, G. Previous Homelessness as a Risk Factor for Recovery from Serious Mental Illnesses. Community Ment Health J 51, 674–684 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-014-9805-9

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