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TEN PEOPLE EXPERIENCING homelessness died per month in 2020, new data shows.
The Health Research Board (HRB) has published a report, based on national data from closed coronial files, which shows that 121 people who were experiencing homelessness died in 2020.
This is the equivalent of 10 deaths per month, and an increase on the previous year’s figure of 92.
“Behind each of these numbers is a life lost. The findings of this report highlight the very difficult situation faced by some of the most vulnerable people in our community,” HRB chief executive Dr Mairead O’Driscoll said.
The data shows that three in four of those who died in 2020 were male.
Half of the males who died were aged 42 or younger, while half of the women were aged 36.5 or younger. This is considerably younger than comparable figures for deaths in the population as a whole, where the majority of deaths are in the 65+ age group.
Over half of the deaths occurred in Dublin.
Over two in three of the deaths were among people who were experiencing homelessness and in temporary or crisis accommodation, while a total of 23 people who died were known to have been sleeping rough.
Almost half of deaths in 2020 occurred in specific accommodation for those who were experiencing homelessness, with a further one in three occurring in a public place.
Of those who died, one in five females and once in 10 males were known to have spent time in prison.
Almost all (91%) who died had a history of substance use, with high levels of multiple drug use.
Heroin (61%) was the most common drug used by those with a history of drug use, followed by cocaine (56%), and benzodiazepines (36%). Of those that had used substances, over four in 10 were alcohol dependent.
There was a high proportion of people who injected drugs, especially among men, and a high prevalence of hepatitis C (over one in 10 men, and almost two in 10 women).
Almost half of those who died had ever accessed substance use treatment.
One in five were receiving treatment for problem opioid use, mainly methadone treatment, at the time of death (35% of females and 17% of males).
Poisoning was the cause of nearly six in 10 deaths. The most common drugs implicated in poisoning deaths were opioids (mainly heroin and methadone), followed by benzodiazepines and cocaine.
Just over half of those whose death involved opioids had previously received substance use treatment.
More than two in three deaths involving opioids occurred in accommodation for persons who are homeless, while one in three of the deceased were with other people at the time of their death.
There were 52 non-poisoning deaths recorded among people who were homeless, with the majority (85%) among males.
Deaths due to cardiovascular conditions accounted for one in four non-poisoning deaths, with the majority occurring among males.
There were 11 (9%) deaths among people who were experiencing homelessness and who had no recorded history of drug or alcohol use.
Over half of the deceased had a known history of mental health issues.
“The Health Research Board’s aim in capturing and analysing data on the nature and circumstances of these deaths is to provide evidence that can inform harm reduction strategies and future policies to support those experiencing homelessness,” Dr O’Driscoll said.
The HRB said this study builds on a pilot requested by the Department of Health which looked at 2019 deaths in order to present a more complete national picture of premature mortality among people who are experiencing homelessness.
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Please stop mis-reporting. Hospitals are not treating 137 suspected Covid cases. There are 137 people waiting on test results. We know that a tiny percentage of these result in a confirmed case.
These people are not being treated for Covid!
Stop reporting this figure it is pointless!
@Joe:this sleight of hand reporting is why trust in MSN is an all time low, and is a form of fake news in itself.
@Joe: This kind of reporting bugs the crap out of me. What you actually have is hospitals treating 137 people for possibly a multitude of conditions, who also happen to have a fever or a cough and are therefore, out of an abundance of caution, correctly being tested for Covid. If all 137 cases had Covid, in addition to all the other “suspected” cases they have been reporting over the months, we would probably have over 100,000 confirmed cases by now. We don’t.
Likewise, “17 people confirmed to have Covid” in hospital does not translate to “17 people being treated FOR Covid”
And I’m sure I’m missing something but how does 348 open critical care beds less 285 currently occupied equal 31 available beds?
I have said it time and again, what is the actual endgame here? We have received no guidance from the government as to what they are actually hoping to achieve. We will never contain the virus, there may never be a vaccination. We had “flattened the curve” and our hospitals are not overwhelmed. The mismanagement of our hospitals’ capacity and capability during the time that we “bought” by staying locked down is scandalous. I personally don’t give a monkeys if my taxes are paying doctors and nurses to stand around idle 90% of the time, so long as they are there and rested and available to cope with ANY surge in ANY medical emergencies that may arise, Covid or otherwise. Not being asked to come home and then told to bugger off once the ICU gets quieter.
@InvaderSkoodge: Have you got a minute
Tell us everything you know
@Roger Dawson: He doesn’t know what the end game is!!
Very well in terms of hospital numbers
- 6 confirmed cases in ICU, down one from yesterdays 7
- 17 confirmed cases in hospital, down 5 from yesterday’s figure of 22
-All on the covid data hub
Where is Ireland right now when it comes to Covid-19? Sadly in chaos with the 3 stooges in charge. They can’t even be straight and honest at a time like this.
@LITTLEONE: which ones are Larry Curley and mo
@paul mccoy: oh have put Michael as mo.
Leo as Larry and eamon as curly.
@LITTLEONE: Can you back that up with stats, or is it just a weed head on a keyboard statement?
High testing, high asymptomatic cases, low hospitalisation, low deaths. Looks like a policy of herd immunity. I am ok with that, many are not – just please tell the truth.
@Tony Humphreys:
I’m okay with that too
However is there evidence to suggest that it works?
As far as I know, Sweden is still doing pretty badly after all these months of trying. Their head guy even said the method was a failure.
@Tony Humphreys: Herd immunity does not exist
@Tony Humphreys: calm down with the herd immunity talk on every thread Tony. It doesn’t exist with this virus and won’t ever without a viable vaccine.
@Darren Anthony Corr: their chief epidemiologist said they had made a mistake in june. This is when their cases were soaring and the antibody testing revealed low levels in the population.
- Their cases and deaths have plummeted since then and it has been widely covered (outside of Ireland) that they were now one of the better-performing countries in Europe.
- further studies into Tcells have shown that herd immunity cannot be measured by the level of antibodies in the population. Many people tested negative for antibodies while Covid positive. These people would have Tcells instead.
Tcells could explain the high rate of asymptomatic cases or why many only have mild symptoms. They would have developed Tcells after past coronaviruses.
@Anna:
That’s interesting and makes sense.
It makes so much sense actually that I’m not surprised Irish media isn’t reporting on it.
The figures are incomplete without knowing how many have recovered, and how many active cases there are in the country today.
Someone yesterday wrote that some of the cases being counted these days are cases that had the coronavirus previously and have already recovered, people whose symptoms were so mild that they didn’t realise they had it and now pose no danger to the public.
Is this true first of all, and if so, how many people in this category have been included in the numbers over the last fortnight.
@Garry Coll: Exactly. This is the real question here: how many of the new cases were asymptomatic (and therefore no transmission risk according to the WHO)?
Drinking to your Heart’s content in a Crowded Pub that sells Pizzas is now consider safe but ffs don’t let the over seventies outside the front gate
@frank_1916: I think the idea is to protect the over 70s
@Hector Son:
…….from those incapable of staying away from pubs. They are so much more vulnerable if they do catch it, our recent low death rate is evidence of that
@frank_1916: let them out as long as they realise that if they catch this virus they are very likely to die or become very sick.
Looking at the nicely coloured chart shows that from the end of July, people in Residential Care (the purple people) appear to account for a significant proportion of the cases.
The fact that deaths and hospitalisations since then has remained extremely low seems to mean that the virus is losing potency, or the treatment regime the elderly are now getting is much more effective.
Either way, it makes a nonsense of the governments alarmist rhetoric yesterday.
Its also worth noting that the cases from hospitality or travel related are miniscule, and that sporting activities don’t even merit a separate category.
Not liking Donnelly lately, as for mehole, not my cup of tea, pains me to say it but Leo was far better
@Mick Hannigan:
Agreed although Leo and Harris had very good PR spinmasters creating an image of cuteness and empathy.
Donnelly is an awful mister. Brutal at the job. Bet if he was still a Social Democrat, he would have all the answers and know all of the right thing to say.
Him and Martin are in above their heads with this one. Was a ridiculous idea to change government during the height of all this anyway. FG should have just been granted emergency powers for 6 months or so. As much as I hate to say it.
Incorrect reporting .. 1,775 did not die from covid. The number is at least 650 less than that .
“You can use statistics to prove anything”
Homer Simpson
‘In the past seven days, there have 55,129 Covid-19 tests completed with a positivity rate of 1.3%.’
The false positive rate is estimated to be somewhere between 1% and 2.5% which means the number of cases we are seeing is completely insignificant.
@mar: and the positivity rate has also dropped. It was 1.7% in the last 2 weeks and has dropped to gradually to where it is now
Where is Ireland ? In a Gum-drop house down Lollipop Lane !
I actually think that the charts alone show major cause for concern. If you look at the rising numbers at this point, most of the data points recorded is higher than the peak numbers in May. It took huge effort by everyone to bring the numbers down…. currently we are above most of them and rising.
@Tennyson: But what’s the significance of the numbers? Does the number of asymptomatic cases matter? Not according to WHO. So why are we being fed this pointless statistic every day?
Now, wouldn’t it give a more accurate picture of the state of the country in relation to COVID if the case statistics were broken down to show how many cases were symptomatic, how many showed no symptoms at all, how many recoveries from the diagnosed cases etc?
@FecklessBear: of course it would but that wouldn’t feed into the disaster narrative being pushed by the government with the help of the media..
@Tennyson: So you can’t factor in the testing numbers.
When the schools open it will run rampant. You either fully lockdown and eradicate it and shut boarders i.e. ban holidays or, this half assed version of something that we are doing now. We have to face it probably can never be contained. People are too lax, have lost patience with the measures required and are frustrated with the loss of activity.
Death with Covid, not ‘of’ Covid nor Covid confirmed.
Still no figures of remaining cases, keep on the fear factor.
Does anyone know how long it will take for the incidence rate number to decrease?
With our rate now at 27/100,000 I’m starting see many European countries remove us from their travel lists. Including Finland, Lithuania and Norway.
In many cases, such as Finland they aren’t even allowing 14 day quarantine. They stop you at the border.
Surely Ireland’s green list needs to be amended to reflect these changes.
Of the 5 reported deaths on 6th August, 4 were from April and June – so that’s 1 net for the preceding 24 hours.
Useless graphs.
@Michael O’ Carroll: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EftYiFxXYAEYRA6?format=jpg&name=large
Lithuania have removed us from their green list
Does this mean more countries can be added to the green list for travel, seeing as they said they were picking countries with equal or less cases per 100k than Ireland?
@Micheal Fitzpatrick:
Other countries don’t want us on their own travel lists because our infection rate is too high
In a terrible state about to enter a massive second wave that will make March and April look like a great time.
@Donal Cox: Logic in your statement please
@Donal Cox:
There is no second wave.
Second wave would imply that we eliminated the virus from our shores back in April which we did not.
There is no wave with covid, it’s just there and e need to get on with it.
Just reading some comments
To think the majority of people commenting spent 13 years doing maths at school, and they still cant make heads nor tails of statistical data is just worrying.
Here’s a better graph: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EftYiFxXYAEYRA6?format=jpg&name=large
have your say