HOMED - Raising Awareness About Homelessness and Social Exclusion
HOMED works with healthcare students to promote understanding of and encourage engagement with issues relating to homelessness and social exclusion, such as drug addiction, prostitution and mental health.
Contact: homed@medsin.org
Aims, what we want to do
- Educate ourselves and healthcare students about homelessness and social exclusion
- Challenge prejudice and stereotypes
- Be the friendly face of healthcare
- Be active in local homeless projects
Objectives, how we want to do this
- Meet and get to know homeless people and those considered socially excluded
- Incorporate issues surrounding homelessness into our healthcare education
- Promote open debate about the reasons for homelessness
- Know what services are available to homeless people in your area so that you can point them in the right direction
- Volunteer with established projects, and set up anything you feel is missing in your area
- By increasing contact of healthcare students with the socially excluded
These are the ideas for the direction of HOMED for the future, and all HOMED projects are encouraged to bare these in mind for their projects.
Why bother?
- Hopefully, by better understanding the issues faced by socially excluded groups we can work towards ending the cycle of poverty and poor health through better access to care and better management of multiple needs
But really, why bother??
- THE AVERAGE LIFE EXPECTANCY OF A ROUGH SLEEPER IS 42 YEARS.
- 18% of the 150 BIG Issue vendors surveyed in 2001 had been in the care system; over half said they had experienced a major relationship breakdown
- Around 60% of people sleeping rough have mental health issues, and have 35 times the suicide-risk of the general population
- 45% of beggars and street drinkers say they have a dependency problem
- 2 in 5 BIG Issue vendors said they took drugs- of those using heroin (around two-thirds), 61% said they would use prescription methadone if it were available
- Rough sleepers appear to be up to 15 time more likely to experience assault that the general population
- 47.7% of the general homeless population accessing statutory or voluntary services had multiple needs, which rose to 57% when dealing with rough sleepers
Barriers to Access
- Only 28% of homeless people in London are registered with a GP, compared to 97% of the general population
- GPs require an address in order to register patients- being registered as “temporary”, notes are not requested from the Health Authority, affecting continuity of care
- The “chaotic” lifestyle of many homeless people generally does not fit in with the appointment system
- Personal issues- mistrust of “the establishment”; lack of self-esteem and confidence to approach services
- Limited consultation times to deal with multiple issues
- Particularly difficult access in rural areas
- A & E often the first port of call- little or no continuity of care; expensive to the NHS
What can we do?!?
- Arrange for students to volunteer at local projects, for example day-centers, befriending services, hostels/shelters, soup-runs, outreach work, specialist GP practices, drug and alcohol advisory services, Samaritans°...etc etc.
- Raise proceeds for registered charities
- Organise talks with people "working in the field" and advocacy groups such as Groundswell and Cardboard Citizens
- Campaign for change in medical/nursing curriculums, to better incorporate the idea of holism and multi-disciplinary care
- Campaign for a national change in homelessness legislation
- Join HOMED! Contact Aoife, National Coordinator for HOMED
"helping does not mean rescuing"
HOMED exists at
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Last updated on Saturday 21 March 2009 at 11:03
