THE HOMELESS CLIENTS OF A COMMUNITY PSYCHIATRIC NURSING SERVICE IN INNER LONDON - 2 - REFERRAL PROCESS AND MAIN INTERVENTION

The 'homeless' and 'home-based' clients of the Community Psychiatric N ursing service (CPNs) in Bloomsbury described in the first paper were examined further. The referral process and the CPN intervention were c ompared in the two groups. The homeless clients had different referral pattern, different types of care provided, and had less time spent wi th them even when control for the type of problems they were presentin g with was made. It seems that this difference is due to the multiplic ity and severity of homeless clients' problems that the recording syst em was not designed to record. Also since most of the homeless clients had been referred by informal services that made 'inappropriate refer rals' to the CPNs who then needed to refer these clients to another se rvice. These findings support the fact that homeless people need multi -disciplinary mental health services to meet their complex needs.