One can only speculate on the mechanisms involved as further research is necessary to better understand the pathways at hand. In
the meantime, housing policies and services that seek to re-house mothers in a timely fashion may serve to protect mothers’ mental health. Given the multiple demands mothers face in their efforts to maintain their family, reunite with their children or the site mourn the loss of children who are no longer in their care, a failure to attend to their unique needs is likely to contribute to intergenerational legacies of homelessness and mental health problems. Supplementary Material Author’s manuscript: Click here to view.(1.0M, pdf) Reviewer comments: Click here to view.(155K, pdf) Acknowledgments The authors would like to acknowledge the At Home/Chez Soi Project collaborative at both the national and local levels with special thanks to the team of dedicated field interviewers who met with participants and collected the data, service provider teams who work with participants on a daily
basis, peer researchers, and to the participants who have shared their stories and personal information. The authors would also like to acknowledge Dr Kate Bassil and Dr Charles Goldsmith for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. Footnotes Collaborators: The national At Home/Chez Soi project team: Jayne Barker, PhD (2008–2011) and Cameron Keller, MHCC National Project Leads; Paula Goering, RN, PhD, Research Lead and approximately 40 investigators from across Canada and the USA. In addition there are five site coordinators and numerous service and housing providers as well as persons with lived experience. Contributors: All authors participated in
the conception and development of this manuscript. DMZ conducted the analyses and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. MP and AW revised the manuscript. All authors critically read and approved the final version. Funding: This study was made possible by a funding agreement between Health Canada and the Mental Health Commission of Canada. Competing interests: None. Patient consent: Obtained. Ethics approval: Simon Fraser University and all Institutional Review Boards for participating organisations. Provenance and peer review: Drug_discovery Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed. Data sharing statement: The At Home/Chez Soi data can be accessed by contacting Carol Adair at: [email protected].
Studies in the USA and Australia indicate that at least one in two older people (aged 65 years or greater) living in the community use five or more prescription, over-the-counter or complementary medicines every day, and the number used increases with age.1 2 Polypharmacy (the use of multiple medications concurrently) predisposes older people to being prescribed potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs), that is, where the actual or potential harms of therapy outweigh the benefits.