Losing and Finding a Home

Toward a psychology of homelessness?

September 23, 2011 at 12:46 pm salfordgareth 3 comments

Since we started this piece of research two years ago we’ve learned about homelessness and we’ve learned about what is known about homelessness. As two members of our research team have a background in psychology (Phil Brown and I, Gareth), we have taken an interest in the contribution that psychology has made to the field of homelessness knowledge. We believe that it has much more to offer.

The turn to a social and cultural understanding of homelessness is a relatively recent development in the literature on homelessness. Previously, many ideas about homelessness have made assumptions about why it happens (usually the responsibility is assumed to lie either with the individual themselves or, alternatively, is the fault of ‘society’). A further assumption is that if we know what makes people homeless, then we can know how to ‘cure’ it. But recent authors of homelessness have looked at it from a different perspective: they have taken a deeper interest in the wider experiences of homeless people and by doing so have gained a richer understanding. This isn’t just about what homelessness is, or necessarily how it ought to be fixed; it is about understanding the meaning of experience to those individuals and how they see themselves within the social world (among their friends, family, peers, support workers, etc.).

The application of psychology, as we are discovering, has much to offer in our understanding of homelessness. It can also help to support practitioners with the services they offer. The ‘Psychologically Informed Environment’ Approach (PIE) is highlighted in the  Mental Health Good Practice Guide and points out:

“User-led services that work to encourage engagement but not reproduce dependency will be more effective than those that overlook the social dimension of person-centred services.” (p. 19)

It is an approach being taken up by St Mungo’s.

The PIE approach is one example of what could potentially be a wider offering of psychological knowledge to the area. We would be really interested to hear your views about the role of psychology for homelessness. Whether you have been, or are homeless, whether you work with homeless people or are involved in policymaking, please share your views. We would also like to hear from any other psychologists, academics or in practice, who may be working in the area of homelessness or a related field.

Feel free to leave a comment here or contact one of us via email. Our researchers are listed here.

Entry filed under: Homelessness services, Policymaking, Psychology, Research. Tags: homeless, homelessness, homelessness services, policymaking, psychologically informed environment, psychologically informed services, Psychology, St Mungo's, understanding homelessness.