Mental & Emotional Health:

There is a strong link between homelessness and poor mental health, with high rates of severe mental health diagnoses.  80% of people experiencing homelessness report that they have some form of mental health issue with 45% having a severe mental health diagnosis.  

Homelessness, substance misuse and negative relationships mean that many of our clients are more likely to have a level of mental ill-health.  Therefore, supporting the individual to deal with the issue that is affecting their health, eg homelessness and poor mental health may be the effect of substance misuse which may in turn be the effect of having suffered abuse in earlier life, will be the priority need.

Accessing mental health services when one is homeless can be difficult – firstly acknowledging one needs help and then having the motivation to make an appointment to attend the GP for assessment – these are frequent barriers that we support our clients to overcome.

Initial Mental health assessment (MHA) – we employ a mental health nurse who undertakes an initial MHA.  These are then forwarded to the Rough Sleeper Mental Health Team (RSMHT) lead who will then determine whether further specialist involvement is required.  If so, a formal referral is made.  All information is shared on a 'need to know' basis.

Counselling – we employ seven counsellors currently, speaking English, Lithuanian, Romanian, Portuguese, Punjabi, Arabic and Polish as this reflects current need.  If needed, we are able to access other languages.  This has significantly improved the mental and emotional health of a number of our service users.  All counselling is supported via zoom or teams and thus our counsellors are located the length and breadth of the UK.  This approach has improved uptake and clients are offered 6 sessions in the first instance.  If there is engagement, a further 6 sessions are offered.  Where there is clear need, we offer 18, 24 or in extreme cases, 30 sessions.

Exercise  - Depression and low self-esteem is prevalent within the homeless community, leaving individuals feeling low in energy and lacking in motivation to make positive lifestyle change.  As well as the physical benefits, exercise has been proven to improve mental health by reducing anxiety, depression and negative mood/thoughts, thereby improving self-esteem, self-worth and increasing the impetus to help oneself.

We have a table tennis table/equipment stored at the day centre, which, before the pandemic was well used.  However, due to the way in which services are currently run, we are not able to continue to provide this service at the current time. This intervention was shown to be effective in supporting improved physical health and mental health but also promotes team building and confidence.

We continue to work with Vison Redbridge to promote use of the Exercise on Prescription* (hyperlink back to that paragraph on physical health page) scheme