Social Disablement among residents of Hostels for the Homeless in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Background: Knowledge of the extent of social disablement among homeless people is very useful for policy-makers and mental health professionals who are involved in the delivery of community-based care. As there are few studies of this issue in Brazil or other developing countries, a cross-sectional study was carried out among homeless people from the Rio de Janeiro (RJ) metropolitan area. Method: Data were collected on a random sample of 330 residents in the five public hostels using the 21-items Social Behaviour Scale (SBS) and the Composite International Development Interview (CIDI). Results: The mean age of the 330 people in the sample was 44.8, 75.8% of them were men, 78.9% were single, 79.2% unemployed. Ten percent of the 330 residents had more than five social behaviour problems, but 39.4% of them had no problem. Some 26.7% were scored as under-active, 23.0% with poor self-care, 13.3% with slowness, 12.7% with restlessness and 11.8% inappropriate social mixing. Those with schizophrenia were reported to have many more disabilities in almost all of the SBS areas. On the other hand, depression and hostility were more frequent in those with diagnoses of depression and substance abuse disorders. Women were more likely to be reported as having disablement than men, explained by their greater prevalence rate of schizophrenia. Conclusions: In this population, social disablement was largely explained by those with schizophrenia. Active treatment strategies are needed for this group. Other residents had few behaviour problems, their most pressing problems come from their poor social circumstances.