Homeless Life Expectancy: 47
22 December 2011 at 11:32 am
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| Flickr Image: Some rights reserved by KLW NFC |
Homeless people in the UK face a brutally short lifespan, according to new research.
The findings of research into mortality rates of homeless people were carried out by the University of Sheffield and funded by Crisis.
The key findings of the report were:
- The average age of death of a homeless person is 47 years old for homeless women at just 43, compared to 77 for the general population.
- Drug and alcohol abuse are particularly common causes of death amongst the homeless population, accounting for just over a third of all deaths.
- Homeless people are over 9 times more likely to commit suicide than the general population
- Deaths as a result of traffic accidents are 3 times as likely, infections twice as likely and falls over 3 times as likely.
The research found “being homeless is incredibly difficult both physically and mentally and has significant impacts on people’s health and well being. Ultimately, homelessness kills.”
Two main recommendations were made in the report.
The first was that that “steps must be taken to improve homeless people’s health” by removing bureaucratic red tape that requires people to register their address with their local GP.
Secondly, Crisis was also seeking to increase the responsibilities of local councils to prioritise housing the homeless.
Download the report at http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/
