The Relevance of Policy, Practices and Other Dynamics in the Lives of People Facing Mental Health and Addictions Challenges and Homelessness

Limited research explicitly addresses the diverse experiences of people who face mental health and addictions challenges and homelessness (MHACH) in rural Canada, although it is well documented that they face significant health inequities. This critical ethnography, exploring how policies and dynamics affect the lived experience of adults facing MHACH in rural Southwestern Ontario, aimed to enhance responsive policy and supports. Using purposive convenience sampling, semi-structured interviews were completed with four people with lived experience (PWLE) and three key informants. Using conventional content analysis and critical social theory, themes emerging from the narratives illustrated the complexity of PWLE’s lives, survival strategies and resourcefulness. PWLE were contradictorily visible and invisible, encountering profound barriers to care such as stigma and discrimination that resulted in their feeling “less than human”. Nursing implications include the importance of giving voice to PWLE, so we can understand how policy and practice decisions impact their everyday lives.