Psychiatric-mental health nursing can be defined as an interpersonal process in which the practitioner assists the individual, family, group or community to promote mental health, prevent mental illness or assist in coping with the experiences of mental illness and suffering, and if possible to help find meaning in these experiences. Promoting mental health and preventing mental illness are two of the major functions of the psychiatricmental health nurse.

Nurses, regardless of clinical setting, should be proficient in assessing the bio-psychosocial status of their patients and use their findings in planning care for such patients. Nurses need to have an awareness of patients’ broad world in which they live. The individual’s perception of health is dependent on that person’s unique beliefs, social norms, and cultural values. The nurse must be mindful of Socio-cultural risk factors such as age, ethnicity, gender, level of education and income plus patient’s belief system. The nurse also needs to know that there are socio-cultural stressors such as stigma, prejudices, stereotypes, discrimination, intolerance, and housing instability. There are many causes of homelessness, the greatest of which is communal and global strife that make many to flee from their places of abode. In the Nigerian context, terrorism, communal strife and rural-urban migration have combined to make this a serious problem in Nigeria. Homelessness stemming from mental disorder seems to be in a class by itself. 

The goal of nursing therefore has always been to assist individuals, families, groups and communities in dealing with actual or potential problems that may disrupt or has the potential for disrupting their physical, psychological and social wellbeing. Homelessness is one such area that we as Psychiatric-mental health nurses must address and do it vigorously.