Mental Health and Homelessness or Homelessness and Mental Health

Abstract

For many, the face of homelessness in Australia is the face of the mentally ill. In late December 2004 The Age newspaper in Melbourne, arguably the cities most respected broadsheet, headlined a story with '80 % of homeless have mental disorder'. This story then became the basis for subsequent articles in The Age and other media outlets. The original article was unquestioned and each subsequent quoting of it contributed to a distorted perception of homeless people. Public attitudes, not surprisingly, paint a similar picture. A recent survey of public attitudes towards the homeless in Melbourne found that 81 per cent identified mental illness as a primary cause of homelessness.