Carrying out a social autopsy of deaths of persons who are homeless

Social autopsy methodology has been useful in uncovering patterns leading to untimely deaths in many different contexts. Although patterns of early deaths have often been detected among individuals who are homeless, social autopsies are particularly difficult to carry out in this population. This paper provides a template for carrying out a social autopsy of persons who died while homeless. The logistical, ethical, and methodological challenges associated with implementing this methodology are discussed with suggested responses. In addition, this article aims to provide procedures and lessons learned for researchers embarking on this type of work. The described procedures are based on an investigation intended to develop a social autopsy methodology to investigate early mortality among homeless persons.