Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Articles & podcasts
    • Blog posts
    • Collection
    • News
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
  • CMA Members
    • Overview for members
    • Earn CPD Credits
    • Print copies of CMAJ
    • Career Ad Discount
  • Subscribers
    • General information
    • View prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2021
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN

User menu

Search

  • Advanced search
CMAJ
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN
CMAJ

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Articles & podcasts
    • Blog posts
    • Collection
    • News
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
  • CMA Members
    • Overview for members
    • Earn CPD Credits
    • Print copies of CMAJ
    • Career Ad Discount
  • Subscribers
    • General information
    • View prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2021
  • Visit CMAJ on Facebook
  • Follow CMAJ on Twitter
  • Follow CMAJ on Pinterest
  • Follow CMAJ on Youtube
  • Follow CMAJ on Instagram
Letters

Homeless shelters and substance misuse

Graham Pluck, Kwang-Hyuk Lee and Randolph Parks
CMAJ February 13, 2007 176 (4) 489; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.1060229
Graham Pluck
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Kwang-Hyuk Lee
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Randolph Parks
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF
Loading
  • © 2007 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors

We read with interest Wendy Muckle and Jeffrey Turnbull's guest editorial on homelessness.1 Although shelters are not perfect, they do protect people from some aspects of homelessness. For example, there is evidence of cognitive impairment in some homeless people,2 and this association is partially dependent on housing quality.3

We compared substance misuse in 31 homeless people staying in supportive shelters with that in 15 people who were literally roofless in Sheffield in the United Kingdom. Thirteen (87%) of the roofless people had injected drugs in the past month compared with only 4 (13%) of the people in shelters. All 15 (100%) of the roofless people had been using heroin or crack cocaine regularly in the past year compared with only 10 (32%) of the people living in shelters.

Homelessness is inevitably harmful and can become self-perpetuating. In our study, despite the lower level of drug use in people living in shelters, 18 (58%) of the people in this group had started taking at least 1 new drug since becoming homeless. If the homeless do not receive significant levels of help, the problems they experience can multiply. A public policy of increasing resources to address the problems of the homeless would likely be highly cost-effective over the longer term. Muckle and Turnbull are right to be concerned about the possibility of cutbacks by the current Canadian government to the homelessness funding program.

REFERENCES

  1. 1.↵
    Muckle W, Turnbull J. Sheltering the homeless [editorial]. CMAJ 2006;175(10):1177.
    OpenUrlFREE Full Text
  2. 2.↵
    Spence S, Stevens R, Parks R. Cognitive dysfunction in homeless adults: a systematic review. J R Soc Med 2004;97:375-9.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  3. 3.↵
    Seidman LJ, Russell KS, Caplan B, et al. The effect of housing interventions on neuropsychological functioning among homeless persons with mental illness. Psychiatr Serv 2003;54:905-8.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Canadian Medical Association Journal: 176 (4)
CMAJ
Vol. 176, Issue 4
13 Feb 2007
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author

Article tools

Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
To sign up for email alerts or to access your current email alerts, enter your email address below:
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on CMAJ.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Homeless shelters and substance misuse
(Your Name) has sent you a message from CMAJ
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the CMAJ web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Homeless shelters and substance misuse
Graham Pluck, Kwang-Hyuk Lee, Randolph Parks
CMAJ Feb 2007, 176 (4) 489; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.1060229

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
‍ Request Permissions
Share
Homeless shelters and substance misuse
Graham Pluck, Kwang-Hyuk Lee, Randolph Parks
CMAJ Feb 2007, 176 (4) 489; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.1060229
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • REFERENCES
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Using pathology data to evaluate surgical backlogs: considerations for resource planning
  • Using bar codes to create a robust national vaccine registry
  • Building research infrastructure across a health service
Show more Letters

Similar Articles

Collections

  • Topics
    • Health policy

Content

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Collections
  • Sections
  • Blog
  • Podcasts
  • Alerts
  • RSS
  • Early releases

Information for

  • Advertisers
  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • CMA Members
  • Media
  • Reprint requests
  • Subscribers

About

  • General Information
  • Journal staff
  • Editorial Board
  • Governance Council
  • Journal Oversight
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright and Permissions

Copyright 2021, Joule Inc. or its licensors. All rights reserved. ISSN 1488-2329 (e) 0820-3946 (p)

All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association or its subsidiaries.

To receive any of the resources on this site in an accessible format, please contact us at cmajgroup@cmaj.ca.

Powered by HighWire