Mental health training in emergency homeless shelters

The prevalence of mental illness among homeless persons points to the impor tance of providing mental health training to emergency shelter staff. The a uthors report on their own work and argue that such training offers the pot ential to significantly improve shelter staffs ability to respond to the ne eds of shelter residents with mental illness, and to the behavioral problem s some of these individuals may pose for shelter operation. Mental health c are providers should take into consideration organizational dynamics when p lanning and implementing such training.