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We need to examine why people become homeless mentally, instead of providing shelter or medicine

less than five posts of specialists in clinical psychology from the NHS in England in particular attention to the homeless population. Why so few? One factor is that the approach to homelessness has been on the fight against the lack of housing and leases. This can be a major problem for homeless families, but tends to ignore many of the problems faced by individuals who continue to lose their homes and sleep in the street.

Last figures

Department of Communities and Local Government, the number of homeless people in England in the fall of 2010 to 1768 and, according to the charity of the homeless crisis, this number is growing . Despite good work done by the third sector and government, homelessness appears to be an insoluble problem. This is due in part to changes in housing policy and benefit reductions in the funding of measures to reduce homelessness.

Perhaps another part of the problem is how to provide services related to our understanding of sleep outside. It is understood that it is caused by social factors (such as poverty, homelessness, etc.) or individual factors (irresponsibility, alcohol, drugs, mental health problems, for example). Thus, if society is to blame or is the individual. This understanding promotes polarized social solutions, such as housing, or interventions that attempt to "fix" people, such as drugs, or sweep the streets (stop).

a psychological understanding of the problem, however, makes explicit the interaction between the individual and his environment. Sleep on the street should be considered as a behavior. The logical question is why people do it? What is precipitated? For many, the answer is that they were expelled from their homes or abandoned, often because of antisocial behavior such as violence and drug use, and practical issues, such as non-payment of rent.

instead of oversimplifying complex problems using the limits of diagnosis, psychological understanding can be useful to find ways to address the factors that explain the behavior that led to the loss of use. Clinical psychologists are trained to do so.

Up rethink why people become homeless, and far from a categorical approach, the diagnosis towards a psychological understanding, the shortage of specialists in psychology working with this group will continue, and disposal will sleep outside to avoid us.