Friday, August 27, 2004

High rate of death among homeless youth linked to mental illness, substance abuse
Item in CMHA/Ontario's Mental Health Notes - "Homeless youth in Montreal were 11 times more likely to die than youth in the general population between 1995 and 2000, and suicide and drug overdoses were the leading causes of death, according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study recruited 1013 youth between the ages of 14 to 25 years who used the services of community-based street youth agencies or who had been without a place to sleep at least once between 1995 and 2000. The average age of the participants was 19.9 years, with two-thirds of them boys. Participants were interviewed twice a year about sociodemographic characteristics, alcohol and drug use and sexual behaviours, and they were tested for HIV..." See also the full JAMA article,