How 'mentally ill' homeless women in India get caught in a vicious cycle

A new research has demonstrated how homeless, mentally ill women in India face a vicious cycle.

The study conducted at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine showed that during psychotic episodes, Indian women wander away from home, sometimes for long distances, and wind up in homeless shelters. They later return to their families before undergoing sufficient psychosocial rehabilitation to deal with their illness. Consequently, they suffer mental illness relapses and wind up homeless again.

Study author Anita Rao asserted that the study illustrated how there must be a balance between reintegrating homeless, mentally ill women with their families and achieving a psychiatric remission first.

Rao surveyed 21 women in a residential facility for homeless, mentally ill women. The surveys were prepared in conjunction with the Indian National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences. Information was collected on the women's socio-demographic variables and psychosocial and familial conditions in four time periods: before the onset of illness, during the course of illness, during episodes of homelessness and after institutionalisation.

The study found out that four women had bipolar disorder, seven had schizophrenia and 10 had psychosis not otherwise specified, the two main developments leading to homelessness were death of a primary caregiver and abandonment by family members.

More than half of the women (52%) came from states including Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.