Homeless die at 3 times normal rate.. age 44, average death age

[oscar111]

VICTORY! i finally got the article. After waiting months for scholars to get it, i was able to upgrade my computer and get it my own !##!! self. Scholars, shame on you.
Praise to Annals of Internal Medicine.. somehow i got the full article with out subscribing. Here is the link for you folks.

Boston study found the triple death rate. Another found the average age i quoted in this title.

Recent NYC study found only a twice normal death rate.. but note that scholars usually do a boxscore of all studies to get at the true facts. The boxscore allows one to have the flaws of one study balance out the flaws of the others. So do not just use the latest study.. that is not scientific.


Here is the Boston study


http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/126/8/625

I will digest it later . Your comments invited. So far, the study seems to gloss over the deadly effects of heat, cold, hunger. Either as primary cause of death, or as contributing factors. Hmmmmm

NEWBIES..
GOP in the person of Reagan began the modern wave of mass homelessness, by cutting housing vouchers by two thirds in the early eighties. Mass homelessness had not been seen since the 'thirties. {one DU poster thinks the cuts were not that large, so someone pls verify the size}. RR also revived poorhouses, now called "homeless shelters".

[DELUSIONAL]

1. More confirmation of our third world status

In a way the homeless are sort of like a tribe living among an affluent dominate culture.

The homeless are reduced to purely survival. All the things that supposedly make up an advanced culture are out of reach of this "tribe" of people. (Tribe as in the anthropological sense.) Again this is happening among the supposedly richest nation in the world.

Thanks for finding this --

My question -- how many of the homeless would have been in mental hospitals in an earlier era? This issue wasn't taken up in this paper. It seems to me that we are seeing a massive failure of the health care system in the US -- our public health infrastructure apparently no longer exists.



Homelessness affects an estimated 0.5 to 3 million persons in the United States <1, 2> and has serious health implications. Homeless persons have a high prevalence of substance abuse <3, 4>, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection <5, 6>, tuberculosis <6, 7>, and other medical illnesses <8-10>. Not surprisingly, homeless persons often die prematurely of various preventable causes. In one study, homeless adults in Atlanta died at a median age of 44 years; 48% of the deaths were accidental <11>. In another study, homeless persons in San Francisco died at an average age of 41 years; 34% of the deaths resulted from accidents and 13% from homicides <12>. Compared with that of the general population, the mortality rate of homeless men in Sweden is elevated fourfold <13>. Among homeless adults in Philadelphia, the age-adjusted mortality rate is 3.5 times higher than that of the general population <14>. Our goal was to ascertain cause-specific mortality rates in a cohort of homeless adults.

[greenisin]

2. Sigh

> how many of the homeless would have been in mental hospitals in an earlier era?

I hate, hate, HATE it when rich people try to intertwine the issue of mental health with that of poverty. Just because someone is too poor to have a place to live doesn't mean they're crazy. I can barely afford my aparment, does that make me only one step away from being crazy? No. Stop falling for the Republican line that the wealthy are smart and sane while the poor are stupid and insane. That just isn't true.

[cornermouse]

3. You're right.

Poverty isn't an indicator of mental illness. However, it is a fact that there are a lot of homeless who are homeless because they are mentally ill and the way we refuse to care for or about them now is disgraceful.

[DELUSIONAL]

4. Unfortunately -- when Ray-gun closed the mental hospitals

when he was Governor -- the mental patients DID end up on the streets.

Unfortunately many people with mental illnesses attract attention and find themselves in prison.

Homelessness and mental illness are somewhat related but there is not a correlation. Homelessness does NOT equal mental illness. But how many people who are poor and homeless BECOME mentally unstable from trying to survive on the street.

I never mentioned Poverty and mental illness -- don't put words in my post that were NOT there.

This is NOT a Republican line -- this is reality. I personally believe that the whole GOP leadership should be in a mental hospital. And anyone who voted for bushie is crazy.

Mental illness is a fact of life -- which affect a conservative estimate of 10% of the population.

Mental illness does not mean stupid -- some crazy people are very intelligent. And some rich people are stupid and insane.

I suggest you do some research about mental illness -- and the Ray-Gun era of emptying mental hospitals.

[oscar111]

7. hmlssness does cause mental problems

I recall one good study that found that

the high rate of mental illness among the poor was due to two causes:

half was due to 'rolldowns". The citizens in higher income classes who were mentally ill, would lose their money and "rolldown" to poor parts of town.


Half was due to the savage stress of living in poverty. These were born in a poor area, and developed mental problems because of life there.

The study looked at poor areas.. which includes poverty far milder than the homeless level.
So i would conjecture that even more than half of the mental illness among the homeless, is due to the situation, due to the GOP ... less than half due to preexisting "rolldown" illness.

[ninkasi]

5. I agree with you

It would have been interesting to see how the effects of heat, cold, and hunger contributed to the early deaths. It would seem to me to be one of the primary causes of deaths.

Yes, the sainted St.Ronnie started the Republican trend of miserly assistance to those who need it, and forcing income from the bottom to the top, and Bush has only made things worse.

I realize that many think of the homeless as being winos, or mentally ill, but there are families, including children, living on the streets, in cars, in shelters, or trying to stay with relatives for brief periods of time.

The mentally ill were pretty much put on the streets by Regan, I think. If they were sick enough to be in hospitals, how did he think they could manage living without homes? Well, the truth is, Republicans don't care. The same party that wants every woman to give birth regardless of the circumstances, and is willing to slaughter hundreds of thousands of people in needless wars are repulsive hypocrites.

[oscar111]

6. data from Oscar's reading of many articles

I recall one study dated about 'eighty four... in which it found in one studied city, these traits...

one third of hmless were so, due to extreme poverty as the cause

one third, due to illness.. mental or physical

one third, due to addiction.. alcohol or drugs.

Many other studies have echoed how the minimum wage does not pay enough for rent, so even working families have to raise kids on the street. I have read of kids sleeping on school steps. Horrible.

========================
I have read one article touching on the closing of mental hospitals... the beds were cut

%%%%
in half
&&&&


by the republican taxcuts/service cuts. One cut leads to the other cut. Hospitals for the criminally insane also part of that 'cut-in-half' action. Outrageous.

I am not calling all the mentally ill dangerous, ... just pointing out that some are, and that to put those dangerous ones out on the street is bad for both them and the rest of us. The crimes that make the TV news should be blamed on the GOP. Blamed on the GOP cuts to criminally insane hospitals.
==========================

as to GOP lies.. equating poverty to "they are just crazy, thus deserving of poverty"..

I have long said that american poverty is due to the twelve million Job Shortage. .. see sig below. 12 million, plus their family members, if four per family... equals about 48 million.

Poverty number from the government, stands at about 45 million. So the Job Shortage is more than able to account for all of our citizens in poverty. No other explanation needed.

Of course, i agree some are too sick to work, some elderly, and so those also cause poverty. The sick include physically and mentally.

JOB SHORTAGE IS THE LW TERM

But the overwhelming cause of our nation's poverty remains the massive Job Shortage.

Progressives should stop using the RW term "unemployed". That opens the door to listeners thinking.. "they must be lazy.. i see pages of job listings". Say instead, "job shortage people". Refer to the BLS stat in my sig link. Only four million openings for sixteen million seekers and discouraged.

Talk about the Job Shortage . Until it is where it ought to be.. Zero.

[oscar111]

8. researchers with time to get active links to other articles?

i am still short on time, so could anyone else dig up some active links to the key articles i listed in the other post i have here on the Poverty Forum?

We all need to get the key stats from those articles and memorize them..

to win carpool and watercooler discussions with freepers.

My other post is titled something like "scholars wanted"

[oscar111]

9. Recommend

for greatest page.. this is an important issue.

[ninkasi]

10. Again, I agree with you

If this country could enforce a living wage, much of the homeless population could be reduced. My own feeling about the homeless who are also alcohol, or drug abusers, is that if these people had homes,and could work at jobs that gave them enough money to live, even on a modest scale, we could get rid of the majority of the homeless.

Many of the homeless are veterans, either of Viet Nam, or the two wars in the Mideast. We go to extraordinary steps to honor our soldier while they are fighting, then refuse to fund the programs needed to bring them back to society, and sanity. Jobs that pay a living wage are crucial to our soldier's dignity and recovery. Living wage jobs are necessary to lift millions of us out of hopelessness and despair.

We are still asked to believe, however, that Republicans believe in a culture of life. I saw these words here on DU not long ago, they are not pro-life, but pro-birth. There are homeless women who get pregnant, and give birth. The same hypocritical people who will fight tooth and nail for the woman to give birth, have absolutely no compassion for what happens to the woman and her baby when it is safely out of the womb, and a tiny living person.

I have no words to adequately express my disgust and contempt for such people.

[oscar111]

11. 4 Billion wold end all homelessness... 350 B. Taxcuts for rich.

End homelessness, by simply re instating the housing vouchers cut by the GOP over the last two decades.

bush cut taxes for the rich by over 350 Billion. Roll back that cut, and homelessness can disappear with lots left over.

Living Wage is also good , would work with those who are merely underpaid.. i estimate one sixth of all who are homeless. The addicts, sick and the jobless, would still need vouchers for housing.

I would couple Living Wage with the guarantee of a job for all seekers. See my sig. We need a global Jobs for All ... since Mexico's Job Shortage policy is driving millions here and creating a big fight over jobs here. We are fighting mexicans for US jobs, and that is so sad. We should be allies of the mexican workers. If both the US and Mexico had a Jobs for All policy, we would all live well.

See my sig for site with Galbraith .. deceased last week... Clinton S of Labor Reich, two nobel laureates, an Archbishop, tons of other advisors.