Som Deinstitutionalization

Several studies have concluded that approximately one-third of all homeless people suffer from a mental illness. For example, on any particular day, approximately 200,000 people have mental illness out of an estimated 600,000 homeless people in the United States. Society has become so desensitized that people have become used to averting their eyes when seeing wide-eyed homeless people walking down the street. Improving this condition could greatly improve society. These people have a horrible quality of life. Most people with untreated mental illness frequently dig through trashcans and dumpsters for food. They are victimized, assaulted and injured. They are more likely to be sexually assaulted. They even have a “markedly elevated death rate.”
(Cisneros 157). Although people with more complex mental illness need a higher level of psychiatric care, according to research, these are the people that get the least amount of psychiatric counseling” (Curie et al. 2). According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, “Better mental health services would combat not only mental illness, but homelessness as well.” Some people with mental illness get frustrated with the inability to treat it; conversely, some people with mental illness don’t realize they need treatment. In order for this to be more successful, these programs would need to “establish a trusting relationship through continued contact with the people they are trying to help” (”Mental Illness and Homelessness"). Psychiatric care is necessary to help homeless people with mental illness become independent people who can contribute to society. Without this crucial mental care, many homeless people with mental illness who could be living better and contributing to the community would be lost and