This Mental Elf blog relates to issues that are very close to my heart: how best to meet the health needs and improve outcomes for marginalised groups with multiple needs.
Specifically, this blog will give an overview of two papers that featured in a Lancet series on Homelessness, and a review of service responses and outcomes.
What is ‘homelessness’?
Before we delve into this, it is worth considering what is meant by ‘homelessness’. Rather than referring to a specific situation, homelessness is an umbrella term for a range of circumstances where someone lacks a permanent home. These include people:
who are roofless (no home/accommodation at all)
in temporary accommodation (e.g. bed and breakfast)
in other insecure or inadequate housing, such as “sofa surfing” (crashing with acquaintances but with no permanent or legal right to stay)
It is also worth making a point about the use of language to describe people who are homeless. It’s important to distinguish between the person (their identity) and the circumstances in which they find themselves. Therefore, in this blog I will be using the phrase “people who are homeless” as opposed to “homeless people” or “the homeless”. It’s so important to remind ourselves that anyone can become homeless, given a certain set of events. Homelessness is not a “lifestyle choice”. There are also a lot of stereotypes and stigma associated with homelessness, and it’s possible that this stigma could affect the ability of health services to engage with this group.