Is Traumatic Brain Injury Causing Homelessness?

August 6, 3:40 PMRaleigh Disability ExaminerTim Moore

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Too many people associate homelessness with substance abuse, laziness, craziness and extreme societal rejection, but one survey has reported that over 50 percent of the homeless in Toronto, Canada are afflicted with traumatic brain injury.

The survey was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal and was led by Dr. Stephen Hwang from the Centre for Research on Inner City Health at Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital. The study consisted of 303 females and 601 males.

For the study, Dr. Hwang and his colleagues studied nearly 1,000 homeless people who participated in the Torontos meal programs and homeless shelters over 2004 and 2005. What they found was staggering. While the general public only has an 8 percent occurrence of traumatic brain injury, which most commonly occurs due to car accidents, physical assaults or falling, that number was 53 percent for the homeless participants. Furthermore, they found that 70 percent of those with traumatic brain injury had the injury before they were homeless.

This study is raising all kinds of questions. For one, is traumatic brain injury a risk factor for homelessness? Do these injured homeless people turn to drugs and alcohol as a form of self medication for an injury they do not know they have? Can early testing and diagnosis for traumatic brain injury, which can go unnoticed for years, curtail the number of homeless people on the street?

Traumatic brain injury  causes erratic behavior and cognitive issues and is a disability, which may easily lead to broken relationships, lost jobs, and in the end, homelessness. The behavior seen in many homeless people is easily compared to traumatic brain injury – screaming, rage, confusion, lack of reasoning and unpredictable behavior.

The researchers suggest that testing be done for high risk people in prisons and hospitals, so that those with an injury can be treated and not end up as another homeless statistic. Unfortunately, even with diagnosis, traumatic brain injury has no cure and treatment involves long-term, extensive and expensive rehabilitation. Community services would be needed for the injured homeless and many would need to seek treatment for substance abuse. Hopefully there will be more studies in other major cities to determine whether traumatic brain injury is causing homelessness across the board.