I have a serious medical condition as does my oldest son. He learned at an early age that some kinds of "bad behavior" was situational and driven by things like fever and once the cause clears up, the behavior goes away.
Knowing this helped his mental health because he never wasted any time on wondering if he was nuts for behaving strangely while feverish. He chalked it up to FEVER, full stop, and knew it would go away when the fever broke.
He also learned to not argue with me when I'm irrational as a side effect of my medical issues. It does no good and actively magnifies any mental or emotional issue I'm having because the real solution is to treat the medical issue CAUSING me to be irrational.
Ever since he was a teen, conversations between he and I when I'm irrational go something like this:
Addiction does not, per se, cause homelessness. Plenty of millionaire rock stars are in and out of treatment for addiction without ever ending up homeless.
The single strongest factor that studies have tied to rising rates of homelessness is rising cost of housing. I'm not sure studies actually say this, but I would assume that is especially when the cost of housing rises RELATIVE to income.
Furthermore, being homeless is very stressful in a "makes you crazy" kind of way. So if you deal with homeless people as part of your job, it is best to err on the side of assuming they are temporarily out of their mind due to stress and illness, the way someone with a high fever or very short of sleep can behave irrationally without having mental health issues generally.
Homelessness can be a chronic case of "temporary insanity" due to lack of sleep, how badly everyone treats you and ongoing health issues from poor diet and poor sanitation. The BEST treatment for that is helping them tend to their hygiene issues, get adequately fed and generally address the underlying root causes of their distress.
Too much emphasis is put on the theory that homeless people "need to be in therapy!" or "need to be getting treatment for their addiction!" No, mostly, homeless people need actual solutions to their actual problems.
When we were homeless in downtown San Diego, we sometimes bought lunch at the Ralph's and walked to a park about two blocks away to eat it. We sometimes bought an entire pizza because the price of a whole pizza -- about fourteen slices of pizza -- was LESS than three individual slices via the "pizza by the slice" price.
That was more food than we could usually eat, so we typically gave the extra slices away to other homeless people in the park. Similarly, we sometimes bought a gallon of milk knowing we couldn't drink an entire gallon in one sitting and it wouldn't keep because we had no means to chill it, so leftover milk also got given away.
One homeless woman who talked to herself out loud a lot and would wander the streets of downtown San Diego seemingly loudly reliving some kind of sexual abuse or sexual trafficking was one of the individuals we gave food to once or twice.
I think the first time my adult son offered her food, she turned him down and he just moved on to the next person. Her behavior suggested she didn't trust him, probably in part because he was male and she seemed to have been sexually abused or misused in some fashion based on things she loudly said while wandering downtown in an irrational state.
She seemed surprised that he just moved on and didn't try to talk her into taking it. She likely thought he was trying to put her in a position of "owing" him something, i.e. a first move towards victimizing her.
Another time, she was talking to herself and he walked up to her and simply asked if she wanted the leftover food he was offering. She was startled, probably that he simply spoke to her about that without saying anything about her talking to herself, and he repeated himself once he had her attention and she accepted the food that time.
After that, she stopped wandering the downtown area LOUDLY reliving some kind of sexual trauma and at one point gave us four quarters at a point where my bank account was frozen by creditors. We had food stamps but no cash money for things not covered by food stamps, so that dollar really meant something to us.
Focusing on how YOU believe "Homeless people are all junkies and crazies" can magnify mental health issues. It can actively grow the mental health problems of homeless people or even actively drive people crazy who aren't really crazy, they are just living with a lot of stress due to poverty and being social outcasts as a consequence of extreme poverty.
If you aren't their therapist, don't engage Teh Crazeh. Focus on whatever immediate issue you are trying to help them with as part of your job and don't let their mental health issues or situational distress due to being homeless derail the process of trying to get them fed, set them up a medical appointment or what have you.
The best thing you can do for their mental health is actually help them with their actual problems, both immediate and bigger picture, such as food, clothes, hygiene, job hunting, house hunting, finding shelter for the night, etc.
Knowing this helped his mental health because he never wasted any time on wondering if he was nuts for behaving strangely while feverish. He chalked it up to FEVER, full stop, and knew it would go away when the fever broke.
He also learned to not argue with me when I'm irrational as a side effect of my medical issues. It does no good and actively magnifies any mental or emotional issue I'm having because the real solution is to treat the medical issue CAUSING me to be irrational.
Ever since he was a teen, conversations between he and I when I'm irrational go something like this:
- Mom, are you thirsty?
- Why are you trying to change the subject, you good for nothing...
- Here, mom, drink this and have a cookie.
- FINE. I still don't like you....
- (He physically turns away from me and starts talking to his brother, letting me eat and IGNORING my irrational statements.)
- After he gets me fed, hydrated and warm enough, I often simply FALL ASLEEP and wake up NOT CRAZY anymore.
Addiction does not, per se, cause homelessness. Plenty of millionaire rock stars are in and out of treatment for addiction without ever ending up homeless.
The single strongest factor that studies have tied to rising rates of homelessness is rising cost of housing. I'm not sure studies actually say this, but I would assume that is especially when the cost of housing rises RELATIVE to income.
Furthermore, being homeless is very stressful in a "makes you crazy" kind of way. So if you deal with homeless people as part of your job, it is best to err on the side of assuming they are temporarily out of their mind due to stress and illness, the way someone with a high fever or very short of sleep can behave irrationally without having mental health issues generally.
Homelessness can be a chronic case of "temporary insanity" due to lack of sleep, how badly everyone treats you and ongoing health issues from poor diet and poor sanitation. The BEST treatment for that is helping them tend to their hygiene issues, get adequately fed and generally address the underlying root causes of their distress.
Too much emphasis is put on the theory that homeless people "need to be in therapy!" or "need to be getting treatment for their addiction!" No, mostly, homeless people need actual solutions to their actual problems.
When we were homeless in downtown San Diego, we sometimes bought lunch at the Ralph's and walked to a park about two blocks away to eat it. We sometimes bought an entire pizza because the price of a whole pizza -- about fourteen slices of pizza -- was LESS than three individual slices via the "pizza by the slice" price.
That was more food than we could usually eat, so we typically gave the extra slices away to other homeless people in the park. Similarly, we sometimes bought a gallon of milk knowing we couldn't drink an entire gallon in one sitting and it wouldn't keep because we had no means to chill it, so leftover milk also got given away.
One homeless woman who talked to herself out loud a lot and would wander the streets of downtown San Diego seemingly loudly reliving some kind of sexual abuse or sexual trafficking was one of the individuals we gave food to once or twice.
I think the first time my adult son offered her food, she turned him down and he just moved on to the next person. Her behavior suggested she didn't trust him, probably in part because he was male and she seemed to have been sexually abused or misused in some fashion based on things she loudly said while wandering downtown in an irrational state.
She seemed surprised that he just moved on and didn't try to talk her into taking it. She likely thought he was trying to put her in a position of "owing" him something, i.e. a first move towards victimizing her.
Another time, she was talking to herself and he walked up to her and simply asked if she wanted the leftover food he was offering. She was startled, probably that he simply spoke to her about that without saying anything about her talking to herself, and he repeated himself once he had her attention and she accepted the food that time.
After that, she stopped wandering the downtown area LOUDLY reliving some kind of sexual trauma and at one point gave us four quarters at a point where my bank account was frozen by creditors. We had food stamps but no cash money for things not covered by food stamps, so that dollar really meant something to us.
Focusing on how YOU believe "Homeless people are all junkies and crazies" can magnify mental health issues. It can actively grow the mental health problems of homeless people or even actively drive people crazy who aren't really crazy, they are just living with a lot of stress due to poverty and being social outcasts as a consequence of extreme poverty.
If you aren't their therapist, don't engage Teh Crazeh. Focus on whatever immediate issue you are trying to help them with as part of your job and don't let their mental health issues or situational distress due to being homeless derail the process of trying to get them fed, set them up a medical appointment or what have you.
The best thing you can do for their mental health is actually help them with their actual problems, both immediate and bigger picture, such as food, clothes, hygiene, job hunting, house hunting, finding shelter for the night, etc.