How you can help the homeless at home
Health psychology experts have said that homeless people are at higher risk of depression and anxiety than other residents of Australia’s major cities.
But the findings may not be entirely accurate.
Dr Anna Wood, who is a psychologist with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, said it was possible that the homeless were just more vulnerable.
“It’s very easy to see why there are more mental health issues with the homeless population,” she said.
“A lot of them are struggling with mental health problems that are not as well-recognised.”
They might be suffering from stress or anxiety and they are often living in a transient environment.
“But Dr Wood said that for most homeless people, depression and substance abuse were “not as bad” as other people.”
People are not going to become homeless for mental health reasons.
“The problem is with mental illness and substance use, they are more common and more complex,” she told news.com.au.
“Some of them have underlying health issues that need to be addressed and treatment for that needs to be better.”‘
People need help’A spokesperson for the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency said the survey was based on responses from more than 500 people in the country.
“We’re always on the lookout for information that might be helpful to our customers, so we’re collecting all the data we can,” she wrote in an email.
“When we hear from the health practitioners in our community about homelessness, we’ll take those reports and assess if they are suitable for use in the survey.”
She added that the health profession “always encourages” the use of data from the survey.
“Our customers and stakeholders deserve to know whether the information we provide to them is accurate, reliable and of value to them.”
In a statement, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said it “is constantly evaluating the accuracy and reliability of data provided by health practitioners”.
“Data provided by a health practitioner is collected and used in a way that meets their ethical and legal obligations,” the statement said.
“Data is assessed and validated against the guidelines for the health professional.”
Data collected and retained by the ABS for its ABS Household Survey is fully open and accessible to the public.
“In the absence of any request by a Health Practisee, data is publicly available on a request-by-request basis.”
Ms Wood said her organisation had not received any complaints about the data.
“I can’t say whether this data is useful or not, because we’re not a public health agency,” she explained.
“But we do get reports that are very helpful to us.”
Topics:homelessness,health,community-and-society,people,people-who-live-alone,housing,health-policy,health—in-australia