Surely, one needs to ask the question, 'why are they homeless, in the first place?' Sleeping rough with nowhere to call home is not something many people would choose to do, so there would have to be a pre-existing problem of some kind.

My son is homeless and mentally ill and I know which came first. I agree that the situation is probably somewhat symbiotic but there first has to be a reason to be homeless.

Rob, I guess not everyone has a strong family network to support them should they falter (economically). My husband and I have been periously close to losing our house in the last 6 months, due to lack of income caused by the drought. We are lucky enough to both have families that would take us in for a short period of time if it were needed. I suggest that not everyone is that lucky. Certainly it has removed a lot of stress from our lives, knowing that while not ideal, we have a safety net. If we had lost the house, we wouldnt be able to afford to rent, as our mortgage repayments have been less than the local rents. So, not everyone who ends up on the streets is mentally ill to start with. Despite that, I find it difficult to accept without any evidence that the MAJORITY succumb to mental illnes after becoming homeless. Certainly the situation is not conducive to recovering from mental illness, which no doubt prolonges any problems.

I probably should have specified 'youth homelessness' which I believe was the focus of the article. Adult homelessness may be quite different though I still think it shows a pre-existing problem within the culture.

I have aboriginal friends who talk about the social structure before the English conquered - no-one would be left out on their own in hard times, I think the 'victims of drought' show just how individualism is a double edged sword - people can succeed without the help of anyone else but people can also be devastated without the help of anyone else.

Chicken and Egg ..... !! And do we mean Emotional Breakdown, instead of mental ? We are all born fully formed as far as our potential is concerned, and barring accidents we will fulfil our potential, be it physical, social, intellectual, etc etc etc including mental ...... So, it is Life's Accidents that derail us and degrade our capacity to realise potential. As for holding onto realised potential, the scary thing seems to be that whatever we get or have, be it a "home" or anything else, we don't have to stray far off centre to lose it !! Our Safety Nets imprison many of us at the bottom of the J curve ..... too many of us forget that maybe we have to fall in the process of learning to fly. But coming back to homelessness - the key point is that some of us lose a home we have done the work to establish, and nothing could be more souldestroying. How do we think people are going to get back to what we might want to call "normality"? It's hard enough to GET a home - and let's face it, some people never get to establish a home of their own - and it only takes a material and significant lapse to propel any of us to oblivion. There are many crazy people who have homes, BUT how many brilliant people without them ? The kind of collapse that results in homelesness is hard to see as anything but a downward spiral. Seldom do we see this happen except that either alcohol or drugs or personality disorder is rampant. none of these is attractive. We dont really want to know ........

Dont You Worry About That.

It seems the public mental hospitals have their own unique way of solving the problems of mental patients accomadation.

They get the staff to assist the patient to look through the paper for private rooms or live in jobs.

They hunt the papers for live in jobs such as housekeeping or gardening etc.

Then they get the patients[ often a drug addicted person] to contact by phone those people.

You the tax payer then pay for the staff to drive the patient out for an interview.

They instruct the patient NOT to inform the poor home owner that they have mental or drug problems.

The staff wait outside usually up the road a bit two or three houses just out of sight.

Then 'if' the accomadation or job is given to that person they re drive them back to the same address.

All still without a word to the property owner.

Robina Hospital have done that to me on three ocashions. Once when my partner was away I actually had a knife put to my throat by the new live in help in the Granny.

My point is these people should be given a card and made to produce it when applying for work and or accomadation.

We should not be putting members of the public at risk and people have a right to know if somebody has mental problems.

Our first! duty is to protect our family. People get choices in life.
A To take drugs
B To get a job and work hard through life.
It really is that simply.

Lets face it the east have just about destroyed our youth with their drug supply which of course enables them to buy more weapons.

Please dont forget there are many returned soldiers who have suffered pretty much in silence and received far less attention that youth smoking pot.

I say if you have a mental problem because YOU chose to take drugs.

As for Robina Public hospital and the Government.

How Dare you endanger myself and family

This is a complex issue with little study of concrete facts that can help us come to solutions that are fact-based.

1. What definition of mental illness to use. Recent clinical research shows that major mental illness is a complex of brain disorders with genetic components. Though genetic origins exist there are identical twins who do not both have a disease. So there appears to be a trigger that fires up the illness, such as, a head injury, or meningitis. Do we include the biological illnesses like schizophrenia, or addictions, or those with post-traumatic stress disorder. Do we include only those individuals formally diagnosed or with predetermined observable behaviors.

2.Who and how to count. The person who has schizophrenia is withdrawn and isolated, secretive. When homeless they do not seek out human contact. They are extremely difficult to locate. When a well-functioning people find themselves "out on the street", say for job loss, they can develop situational depression, which in 6 months can be gone. During this time of depression, people often exhaust the good will of friends and family, as their depression is seen as laziness. They sometimes self-medicate with street drugs that lead to dual diagnosis of drug addiction and depression. When in the spiral do we count them.

3. Crimes against the homeless can lead to mental illness. Homeless often are victims of random crimes. Assault, rape, murder are profounds risks they bear when not secure and lead to post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) and should be counted.

At any given moment anywhere from 20 to 25% of the general population have a mental illness. Of the ill group, about 50% will not have insight that they are ill. These stats ring true in divisions of population such as jails, schools, etc. It will be difficult to get numbers in this under-served, or unserved, and neglected population.

But we must start. The question is not whether the number is correct but how quickly can we bring resources to bear on this huge and difficult question. It is time to work together for change based on facts.