Mental Health and Homeless Adolescents
The issue of the mental health of homeless young people is one which is only recently being addressed and it turns out to be quite complex, because none of the concepts involved are simple.
Abstract
he issue of the mental health of homeless young people is one which is only recently being addressed and it T turns out to be quite complex. The main reason for the complexity is that none of the concepts involved are simple. Homelessness is the subject of many attempts at definition. Some investigators have used strict criteria limiting the area of study, for instance, to those who are in refuges or shelters. Others. following the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Report [11. have used broader criteria, and have considered homelessness a process rather than a static state: they have included in their studies young people who have, at sometime, run away or left home to live elsewhere. Mental he& is also a concept which is elusive to definition. Mos~ research studies operationalise mental health by using some standard diagnostic set. Some have used sets derived from DSM or ICD criteria, which are based on observers recording the data. Others have used self-report questionnaires, such as the Youth Self Report or the General Health Questionnaire, which are filled out by people themselves.