The needs of depressed homeless persons: designing appropriate services.

This article explores the incidence of depression among homeless persons in an urban area in Maryland. Similar to other studies a high incidence of depression is found; however, dissimilar to other studies its cause is correlated with low self-esteem, food deprivation, family relations, goal orientation, health, drug abuse, previous mental hospitalizations, disabilities and race. It is suggested that services to the homeless need to include more broadly based social casework services that stress basic needs and goal attainment.