Mental health and social vulnerability. The case of women living on the street at Buenos Aires, Argentine

Introduction: The purpose of this research is to investigate the possible relationship between homelessness and mental pathology in a population of women housed in a Social Inclusion Center of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. There could be a clinical bias that characterizes homelessness as a consequence of a mental illness.

Methods: A group of women between 18 and 65 years of age, socially assisted in the Social Inclusion Center for women alone or with minor children “Azucena Villaflor” of the City of Buenos Aires, who in turn consult or have consulted in the past about their mental health before or after being homeless. An observational, descriptive and cross-sectional quantitative study was carried out, collecting primary data through semi-structured interviews, complementing the research with a qualitative approach using the narrative method through in-depth interviews.

Conclusion: There is no unicausal relationship between having a mental illness and being homeless. The job search, a form of re-entry into the productive system, is extremely difficult, due to the market itself, not due to the psychological state of the users. However, the fruitless search generates situations of frustration that, given the context of vulnerability in which they find themselves, can lead to mental health consultations.