title: Homelessness, mental illness and the law.
abstract: One major difficulty that faces both researchers and practitioners who work with the homeless is the lack of definitions and frameworks that assist better understanding of such people's problems and society's response to them. This article reviews the legislation dealing with homeless people's social, civil and legal problems. We tried to give this legislation's historic and social background, including a section on psychiatric disorders in this group because of their relevance to current debate on homeless offenders. We then reviewed the legislation relevant to homeless people in general and the homeless mentally ill in particular, including the recently introduced court diversion schemes.
authors.affiliation: Maudsley Hospital, London.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Abdul-Hamid
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cooney
mesh_terms: D049673:History, 20th Century; D006703:Ill-Housed Persons / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000266:history*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006113:United Kingdom; D014481:United States