Abstract
The 'homeless' and 'home-based' clients of the Community Psychiatric Nursing service (CPNs) in Bloomsbury described in the first paper were examined further. The referral process and the CPN intervention were compared in the two groups.
The homeless clients had different referral pattern, different types of care provided, and had less time spent with them even when control for the type of problems they were presenting with was made. It seems that this difference is due to the multiplicity and severity of homeless clients' problems that the recording system was not designed to record. Also since most of the homeless clients had been referred by informal services that made 'inappropriate referrals' to the CPNs who then needed to refer these clients to another service. These findings support the fact that homeless people need multi-disciplinary mental health services to meet their complex needs.
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