CPG for Psychosocial Interventions in Severe Mental ... - GuÃaSalud
CPG for Psychosocial Interventions in Severe Mental ... - GuÃaSalud
CPG for Psychosocial Interventions in Severe Mental ... - GuÃaSalud
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5.4.2. “Homeless” with SMI<br />
The term “homeless” refers to the mixture of states that <strong>in</strong>cludes those who literally have no roof<br />
(rooflessness), those that have no stable home (houselessness) or those who live <strong>in</strong> precarious or<br />
<strong>in</strong>adequate conditions 214 .<br />
The prevalence of schizophrenia <strong>in</strong> homeless people is variable although higher quality studies<br />
have established the prevalence <strong>in</strong> this population with<strong>in</strong> a range of between 4% and 16%,<br />
with an average of 11%. The highest rates corresponded to the younger subgroups, to women and<br />
to the chronically homeless. In 2002, one review concluded that schizophrenia is 7 to 10 times<br />
more frequent <strong>in</strong> homeless people than <strong>in</strong> the population with stable hous<strong>in</strong>g 215 . Data are <strong>in</strong>cluded<br />
<strong>in</strong> this review from a Spanish study that offers figures situated with<strong>in</strong> a lower range 216 . A more<br />
recent review 217 offers greater heterogeneity <strong>in</strong> its results, with figures of 12% average prevalence<br />
of psychotic disorders <strong>in</strong> a range of 2.8% to 42.3%. Another important fact is that, of this population,<br />
only one third receives treatment 214 .<br />
The attention to “homeless” people and who have SMI, is based on the comb<strong>in</strong>ation of the<br />
services that provide hous<strong>in</strong>g and those that provide cl<strong>in</strong>ical care; this comb<strong>in</strong>ation has two approaches:<br />
the traditional approach, called the cont<strong>in</strong>uum hous<strong>in</strong>g model <strong>in</strong> Anglo-Saxon literature,<br />
which is based on the offer of a range of hous<strong>in</strong>g provided by the same team that provides<br />
the cl<strong>in</strong>ical care, favour<strong>in</strong>g the users’ progression towards more <strong>in</strong>dependent hous<strong>in</strong>g as they<br />
ga<strong>in</strong> cl<strong>in</strong>ical stability. More modern approaches (supported hous<strong>in</strong>g) propose consider<strong>in</strong>g hous<strong>in</strong>g<br />
separately from cl<strong>in</strong>ical stability, based on normalised community hous<strong>in</strong>g and <strong>in</strong>dependent<br />
cl<strong>in</strong>ical services that give support when required 147 .<br />
On the other hand, there are proposals that give preference to hous<strong>in</strong>g (hous<strong>in</strong>g first), with<br />
no prior cl<strong>in</strong>ical stability requirements or no drug consumption 218 .<br />
The cl<strong>in</strong>ical care <strong>for</strong> the subgroup of “homeless” patients can be structured <strong>in</strong>to three overlapp<strong>in</strong>g<br />
programmes and <strong>in</strong>terventions 219 :<br />
• Outreach services aimed at “homeless” people who resist look<strong>in</strong>g <strong>for</strong> treatment by themselves.<br />
• Case Management and ACT Services that are based on personalised relations as a means<br />
of access<strong>in</strong>g the services.<br />
• Hous<strong>in</strong>g and community work to facilitate stability <strong>in</strong> hous<strong>in</strong>g.<br />
Assertive community treatment is worth a special attention as a way of address<strong>in</strong>g the problem.<br />
In this section reference will be made to the specific ACT modalities aimed at deal<strong>in</strong>g with<br />
“homeless” people. These ACT programmes often present modifications with respect to the orig<strong>in</strong>al<br />
programme to address the specific need of this patient subgroup 218 .<br />
Question to be answered<br />
• Which <strong>in</strong>tervention is more efficient <strong>in</strong> people with SMI and “homeless”?<br />
In the RCT by McHugo et al 147 (n = 121) 2 community ICM (Intensive Case Management)<br />
programmes are analysed, that differ <strong>in</strong> the way they approach the hous<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>tervention (<strong>in</strong>tegrated<br />
vs. parallel).<br />
CLINICAL PRACTICE GUIDELINES FOR PSICHOSOCIAL INTERVENTIONS IN SEVERE MENTAL ILLNESS 105