Mental health and homelessness: planning and delivering mental health services for homeless people

This briefing by NHS Confederation sets out the policy context around tackling homelessness and addressing the mental health needs of homeless people. It also examines what considerations need to be made when planning, designing and delivering mental health services for homeless people and highlights examples of good practice.

Around 70 per cent of people accessing homelessness services have a mental health problem. Homelessness charity St Mungo's estimate that 64 per cent of their clients have drug and/or alcohol problems. Although the causes of homelessness are complex, mental ill health is a major contributing factor. Becoming homeless can worsen existing conditions or cause a mental health problem to occur.