Half of homeless women who died from drug-related causes had history of mental health issues
Half of homeless women who died from drug-related causes in 2021 had a known history of mental health issues, compared to 30% of homeless men, according to a new report.
The study also found the typical age of the homeless women was significantly lower than men — 37 compared to 44.
The Health Research Board said there were 128 drug-related deaths involving homeless people in 2021, which it described as 'premature and preventable'.
Some 61 of the deaths were poisonings (or overdoses) and 67 were non-poisoning deaths (medical causes and traumatic deaths).
A fifth of all deaths (27) involved people who had been born outside Ireland, mainly from Eastern European countries.
In relation to poisonings, 20% of the people who died had children and 15% had been in prison at some stage.
The HRB report examined deaths among homeless people using data from the National Drug-Related Deaths Index — which, to date, has examined inquest files up to 2021.
It found:
83 of the 128 deaths (65%) were homeless people sleeping in temporary or crisis accommodation, while 30 (24%) were sleeping rough
80% of the deaths involved males
Heroin was the most common drug used (63%), followed by cocaine (55%) and benzodiazepines (29.5%)
In relation to poisoning deaths, the most common drug groups were opioids — such as heroin and methadone (82%), benzodiazepines (69%), alcohol (38%) and cocaine (36%);
Methadone — the legal treatment substitute for heroin — was the most common single drug implicated in poisonings (53%), but was implicated in almost twice the number of deaths among women (85% compared to 44% among men)
The report said that medical causes accounted for 70% of the non-poisoning deaths, mostly heart issues.
Trauma accounted for 20 deaths (30%). Of these seven were suicides while 13 were from other trauma, such as assault, stabbing, fall or drownings.
Overall a third of all fatalities involved people who had a 'known history' of mental health issues — 29% of males and 52% of females.
About 80% of these people — including all the women — were in contact with medical services.
Typically ages of death ranged from 25 to 77 among women and 26 to 60 among men.
Almost 60% of the deaths occurred in Dublin city and county, while 9% (11 deaths) were in Cork city and county.
Dr Suzi Lyons, Senior Researcher at the HRB and co-author the report, said: 'Problem substance use and mental health conditions remain some of the key health challenges for people who are homeless, with the majority of those who died dealing with one or both of these issues at the time of their death.
"Misuse of more than one drug or substance significantly increases the risk of fatal overdose, which is clear in the number of polysubstance deaths.'
The report also examined the three years between 2019 and 2021 and said the number of deaths increased by 36% over that period, with the highest increase between 2019 and 2020.
But it cautioned that these increases occurred during covid-19 and that any interpretation of the increase 'must be considered' in that context.
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