“Combined with homelessness, it’s just a nightmare”: A qualitative study exploring how people experiencing homelessness perceive mental health and mental health services.

Abstract

People experiencing homelessness (PEH) have poorer mental health. Whilst trauma and psychologically informed services show positive outcomes and are becoming more commonplace, there are still those who do not access them, and little is known about how PEH understand their own mental health. This study explores PEH’s perceptions of mental health, mental health services and any perceived barriers or facilitators to access. 11 PEH participated in semi-structured interviews. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used, and five group experiential themes emerged: ‘understanding mental health’, ‘service frustration’, ‘preserving mental health’, ‘individual challenges’ and ‘identity and context’. Participants understood their mental health in terms of life experiences and wanted personal connection over traditional psychological or psychiatric model-specific intervention, suggesting that attachment-informed support may be beneficial. Whilst policies have started to recognise the importance of offering outreach services and flexible person-centred support, this does not go far enough; participants perceptions of services were based on, often negative, past experiences, with many feeling that the damage is already done. Services need to be proactive in seeking people who need support, showing that they are non-judgemental and working to rebuild trust.

Date of Award	9 Sept 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Plymouth
Supervisor	Pete Keohane (Director of Studies (First Supervisor))