Health Care Services and Homeless People: The Missing Link

Abstract

The paper describes an effective and innovative model of referral and service provision, which has been developed collaboratively between the Royal District Nursing Service Homeless Persons' Program and four inner urban public hospitals. The aim of the Royal District Nursing Service (RDNS) Homeless Persons Program (HPP) is twofold: to provide high quality, holistic health care to homeless people and to improve their access to the mainstream public health system. Our fundamental belief is that health is both a personal resource and a human right. The experience of homelessness impacts directly on physical, emotional and social wellbeing, resulting in a perpetual cycle of ill health and transience. Traditionally, homeless people have met with significant difficulties when accessing mainstream health systems. In 1991, the RDNS Homeless Persons' Program began to develop formal policies and protocols with a public hospital emergency department, in relation to the care and discharge planning of homeless people. This collaborative model of referral and continuity has since been refined and replicated in three other inner urban public hospitals. It now forms the basis of an effective, integrated network that acts to improve not only the quality of care offered by the hospitals, but more importantly, the quality of life experienced by the homeless people involved.