Cumella Stuart, Grattan Eleanor, Vostanis Panos
University of Birmingham Medical School, UK.
Health Soc Care Community. 1998 Sep;6(5):331-342. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2524.1998.00139.x.
Previous research indicates that children in homeless families have a high risk of physical and mental illness. This study reports the initial stage of a longitudinal research programme to measure the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among parents and children in homeless families. A sample of parents in 113 homeless families were interviewed within 2 weeks of admission to seven homeless centres in the City of Birmingham, and compared with a sample of 29 low-income families who were not homeless. Both sets of interviews used the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL), the Communication Domain of the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales (VABS), the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), the Interview Schedule for Social Interaction (ISSI), and height and weight percentiles. A sub-sample of children was also interviewed. The results indicate that 85% of families became homeless because of domestic or neighbourhood violence, that in 54% of families in homelessness coincided with the separation of the partners, and that 49% of mothers had current psychiatric morbidity. Children in homeless families had delayed communication and higher mean scores for mental health problems than the comparison sample. Homeless children were also more likely to have had histories of abuse, and less likely to have attended school or nursery school since becoming homeless. Homeless families had high rates of contact with primary healthcare and social services, but few had been in contact with specialist child and adolescent mental health services. These results indicate a need for a co-ordinated action by housing, social services, education, health services, and the police to prevent families from becoming homeless by protecting victims of domestic and neighbourhood violence from further violence and intimidation. Hence the need to rapidly re-house into permanent accommodation those who do become homeless, to maintain education for their children, and to ensure that such families have access to effective social support and healthcare.
先前的研究表明，无家可归家庭中的儿童身心健康问题风险很高。本研究报告了一项纵向研究计划的初始阶段，该计划旨在测量无家可归家庭中父母和儿童精神疾病的患病率。在伯明翰市七个无家可归者收容中心，对113个无家可归家庭的父母样本在入住后的2周内进行了访谈，并与29个非无家可归的低收入家庭样本进行了比较。两组访谈均使用了儿童行为检查表（CBCL）、文兰适应行为量表（VABS）的沟通领域、一般健康问卷（GHQ）、社会互动访谈时间表（ISSI）以及身高和体重百分位数。还对部分儿童样本进行了访谈。结果表明，85%的家庭因家庭或邻里暴力而无家可归，54%的无家可归家庭中夫妻分居，49%的母亲目前患有精神疾病。与对照组相比，无家可归家庭中的儿童沟通能力发育迟缓，心理健康问题的平均得分更高。无家可归的儿童也更有可能有受虐待史，自无家可归以来上学或上幼儿园的可能性更小。无家可归家庭与初级医疗保健和社会服务机构的接触率很高，但很少有人与儿童及青少年心理健康专科服务机构有过接触。这些结果表明，住房、社会服务、教育、卫生服务和警方需要采取协调行动，通过保护家庭和邻里暴力的受害者免受进一步的暴力和恐吓，防止家庭无家可归。因此，有必要迅速为那些确实无家可归的人提供永久性住房，维持其子女的教育，并确保这些家庭能够获得有效的社会支持和医疗保健。
