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Birmingham community mental health team for the homeless

University of Birmingham, Department of Psychiatry, Northern Birmingham Mental Health (NHS) Trust, Academic Unit, 71 Fentham Road, Erdington, Birmingham B23 6AL

^* Correspondence

Mental health services have been criticised for failing to respond to the needs of the rising number of homeless mentally ill. We report on the first year of referrals to a community mental health team established to meet the needs of the severely mentally ill homeless in Birmingham. Most users had a psychotic disorder and a lengthy history of unstable housing, and experienced a range of other disadvantages. Although the team is successfully reaching its priority group, examination of other characteristics of users has highlighted a number of issues which should inform the future planning and development of the service.