SRFP068: Mental Health Needs Assessment of Individuals Experiencing Homelessness in Charleston, South Carolina

Chelsea Roach, MD; Cristin Adams, DO, MPH

Abstract

Context: More than 4,268 people were experiencing homelessness in South Carolina during the 2020 point in time count, with Charleston county ranked the 4th highest in the state for number of individuals experiencing homelessness. Mental health disorders often contribute to or result from housing insecurity. Objective: The purpose of this quality improvement study was to determine mental health needs, and mental health services utilization patterns of people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity (PEH) in Charleston, SC. Study Design: Cross sectional survey, utilizing a 13 question paper survey Setting: Drop-in resource center for PEH Population Studied: 33 PEH accessing the resource center Outcome Measures: 1. Demographics 2. Mental health needs 3. Access to mental health resources and 4. Preferences for accessing mental health services. Results: Survey participants (n=33) ranged from 19 to 64 years old with 57.6% identifying as male and 51.5% identifying as Black. More than three quarters (81.3%) of those surveyed reported being diagnosed with at least one psychiatric disorder. Over half (56.3%) had been hospitalized for a psychiatric reason. Over two thirds (70.0%) were accessing some form of mental health service and 51.9% endorsed some difficulty accessing prescribed psychiatric medications. Cost and transportation were selected most often as barriers to access. Most participants (92.9%) were interested in receiving some form of mental health service and 62.5% said access to services would make it easier to get stable housing. Most (85.2%) were willing to access mental health services virtually, however, 50.0% of participants did not report access to an electronic device and most (74.1%) denoted preference for in person services Conclusions: PEH have significant mental health needs and experience barriers to accessing mental health services. Resources directed at addressing these barriers are essential to improve the mental health of this vulnerable population and ameliorate housing instability.
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Jack Westfall
jwestfall@aafp.org 11/21/2021

people suffering homeless is so important for primary care to understand. thanks for your work, your research, and for sharing this at NAPCRG

Chelsea Roach
11/21/2021

Thank you so much for your comment!

Gillian Bartlett
gillian.bartlett@health.missouri.edu 11/21/2021

This is great work and with the pandemic - this will sadly become an even larger population that will need care and attention. I look forward to seeing more about this in the future.

Chelsea Roach
11/21/2021

I appreciate you commenting on my poster. I am hopeful this work will open up the door to more accessible mental health services.

William R. Phillips
wphllps@uw.edu 11/22/2021

Very effective attractive poster on an important project. An important piece of background or next steps would be to assess the validity of PEH self-report of the  likelihood to use and effectiveness of virtual mental health services. Difficult patients with difficult problems are difficult to treat. Other reports at this NAPCRG meeting report difficulties in making headway with telemedicine and new technologies. Thanks for sharing your work here at NAPCRG. - Bill Phillips

Chelsea Roach
11/22/2021

Thank you so much for your feedback. Since gathering this survey information it has been used in driving a collaboration between the family medicine department and the psychiatry department at MUSC to serve this population in Charleston.  I think you bring up a really important point that can be studied and included in future presentations on this research. 

Diane Harper
harperdi@med.umich.edu 11/22/2021

Thank you for sharing your work with NAPCRG!

Chelsea Roach
11/22/2021

Thank you! 

Brenda Andreas
11/23/2021

This  has really helped to shine a light on homelessness.

Andy Pasternak
avpiv711@sbcglobal.net 11/26/2021

Thank you for this incredible work. During the COVID pandemic, we've been working with homeless shelters on vaccination efforts. It's really clear the mental health issues there as well. This is good work on an important topic

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