MENTALLY-ILL HOMELESS PEOPLE IN GERMANY - THE FORGOTTEN MINORITY

In Germany for a long time mental illness among homeless people didn't occur as an urging problem. Only lately the number of surveys about m ental health problems among homeless people is slowly rising (along wi th a strong increase of homeless people), most of them being cross-sec tional among users of local homes, hostels or shelters. The paper give s a short summary of the historical development, describes the service s provided for homeless people in Germany and discusses the findings o f the studies conducted in Germany during the last years.