Homelessness and mental health needs in Chile: A preliminary asssessment

Objective: To shed light on the mental health needs and characterisitcs of homeless people in Chile. Homelesness in Chile is a considerable social problem affecting major urban areas, particularly the capital ciy of Santiago. Methods: We utilized a two-pronged approach to carry out this preliminary assessment. First, we carried out unstructured interviews with homeless people and workers working with marginalized, poor and mentally ill populations in urban areas of Chile. Second, we analysed and segmented the data collected by a recent first national survey of homelessness. This survey estimates that 7,254 individuals are homeless in the 80 most populated counties of the country, a ratio of 6.8 per 10,000 (Mideplan 2005). About half of them are in the city of Santiago (47.7%). Results: Our qualitative field interviews indicate that there is a high incidence of psychiatric problems, a striking over-representation of eldery people, and scarcety of services for the homeless population. The breakdown of the data of the fisrt homeless survey indicates that most of them are males (85%) and are older than 30 years (78.7%). More than a quarter is 60 year or older. More that half of them report having psychiatric and/or substance abuse problems: 12,7% reports a psychiatric and/or mental retardation disorder, 16,4% a nervous psychological problem, and 32.6 % reports alcohol abuse and 9.6% a drug abuse. Conclusion: There is an urgent need to study and developed services addresing the specialized needs of the urban homeless population in Chile, particularly mental health and elderly services.