Mental health is often linked to homelessness

On By Vaseline

Kevin Cedervall
| Columbia Daily Tribune

May is officially Mental Health Awareness Month and it seems like a good time to think about the mental health of the homeless community. Believe me, when running a homeless shelter like we do at the Salvation Army, we see an awful lot of people in need of mental health care.

For example, as I write this column, I can’t help but think of the time, not so long ago, when a night resident committed suicide. It was freezing outside and the gentleman was only a night resident and came in from the cold, so we didn’t really know much about him. We would have known more if he had been a full resident and stayed there for 90 days or more, while having regular meetings with a caseworker and other support.

It’s entirely possible that we wouldn’t have been able to save him if the man had been a resident, but we would have had a better chance. We almost certainly could have determined that there was a mental health problem, and we would have been better positioned to help him. It breaks my heart that we couldn’t do that. It breaks my heart that far too many people experiencing homelessness also have mental health issues.

A 2015 study by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that 250,000 homeless people had some form of mental illness and at least 140,000 were seriously mentally ill at some point (out of 564,708 homeless people). Could you imagine? These are pretty big numbers; These are a lot of people who need our help with their mental health.

In my case, for just about any mental health issue, I have a support system of family and friends who come to my rescue and make sure I get everything I need. But what if I didn’t? This is another reason why we know that virtually anyone can become homeless.

Sure, you’re smart and hard-working and would do whatever it takes to provide for yourself and your family, but what if you were living with schizophrenia? What if you find yourself living with depression so debilitating that you can barely get out of bed?

For a number of reasons – of which mental health is just one – we are all much closer to becoming homeless than we would like to believe. We need to keep this in mind when we see men and women living homeless here in Columbia. We must remember that far too many people are in desperate need of mental health care.

Let’s think about this some more during the month of May, Mental Health Awareness Month. Let’s think about what our neighbors may be facing and what they need. Let’s not forget that it could quite easily be us, or someone we love.

Major Kevin Cedervall is a leader of the Salvation Army in Columbia. The Salvation Army provides a wide range of community services to address poverty and other issues, rebuild lives and create lasting change.