Lamontagne Y, Garceau-Durand Y, Elie R, Blais S
Centre de Recherche, Hôpital Louis-H. Lafontaine, Montréal, Québec.
Can J Psychiatry. 1988 Nov;33(8):716-22. doi: 10.1177/070674378803300809.
A transverse survey conducted in 142 young homeless (age: 18-30) shows that they mainly come from broken families where alcoholism, violence and mental illness hold an important place. Regarding work, the majority of the surveyed homeless have not worked more than 24 months in all their life and have nearly continuously been on welfare; those who had jobs lost them much more because of their alcohol or drug use and their problems of interpersonal relationships than because of unemployment. On a personal level, these young adults are particularly battling against two major problems: alcoholism and drug addiction, and mental illness. Although 23% of the surveyed subjects have already been hospitalized in psychiatry, the majority of these young homeless have never received any psychiatric care. Nevertheless, they show mental health problems which are often mistakenly dismissed as the effects of alcoholism or chronic drug abuse. The authors believe that means of detection and adequate treatment must be developed for this growing population instead of thinking of social measures which would only give the young homeless a meal and protection from the elements.
一项针对142名年轻无家可归者（年龄在18至30岁之间）开展的横向调查显示，他们主要来自破裂家庭，在这些家庭中，酗酒、暴力和精神疾病占据重要位置。在工作方面，大多数接受调查的无家可归者一生中工作时间不超过24个月，且几乎一直依靠福利生活；那些有工作的人失去工作更多是因为酗酒或吸毒以及人际关系问题，而非失业。在个人层面，这些年轻人尤其面临两个主要问题：酗酒和吸毒成瘾以及精神疾病。尽管23%的受调查对象已经在精神病科住院治疗，但这些年轻无家可归者中的大多数从未接受过任何精神科护理。然而，他们存在心理健康问题，这些问题常常被错误地认为是酗酒或长期药物滥用的影响。作者认为，必须为这一不断增长的群体开发检测手段和适当的治疗方法，而不是只考虑那些只会给年轻无家可归者提供一顿饭和抵御恶劣天气的社会措施。
