[Homeless individuals admitted to a psychiatric hospital]

This investigation reveals that 10% of the patients admitted to Sankt Hans Hospital in Roskilde during a period of three months were homeless and that the homeless patients are among the younger patients. Relatively more of the homeless patients are men. Women are represented by just under one third and these are primarily among the youngest. The homeless patients are mainly severely mentally ill. The majority of diagnoses are of psychoses. Compared with the entire group of hospitalized patients in which loneliness and poor social network are also pronounced, the homeless patients are among the most unfortunate. Homeless patients are, on an average, hospitalized for briefer periods that the hospital patients as a whole and the psychiatric hospital has apparently only limited possibilities of helping homeless patients. No therapeutic aftercare is available for half of these patients. The great majority are discharged to homelessness again. It is essential that a reasonable combination of therapeutic and housing possibilities is instituted for these patients e.g. in the form of offers of various forms of housing of more or less collective form, graduated as regards size and staffing and depending upon the needs and wishes of the individual patients.