How do mentally ill homeless people perceive their quality of life?

Besides pronounced deficiencies in psychiatric research concerning homeless mentally ill in Germany, studies concerned with the quality of life of hom eless mentally ill were missing until now. This study reveals in a represen tative sample of 102 homeless people from the City of Mannheim, Germany tha t - compared to the homeless without psychiatric disorders of the sample - the mentally ill homeless (prevalence 68.6%) have significantly different s ubjective views of their quality of life regarding the items "state of heal th", "physical capabilities" and "support from others". The differences wer e even stronger if the homeless mentally ill were compared to a group of no n-homeless mentally ill schizophrenic patients (n = 104), cared for in the City's well-equipped community care services. Community care patients repor ted a significantly better quality of life in respect of 11 items. These re sults were seen as a success of the concept of community-based mental healt h care. The consequences for improving care strategies for homeless mentall y ill are discussed.