Improving health services with homeless people in Brighton Arch Health

Homelessness has a huge impact on physical and mental health, and there is a need to improve health services for homeless people. The needs of homeless people are often not well met, and they can get ‘lost’ in the system, or at the transitions points between services.

According to the Faculty for Homeless Health, homeless people are 34 times more likely to have tuberculosis, 12 times more likely to have epilepsy, six times more likely to have heart disease, and five times more likely to have a stroke than the general population. Research by Homeless Link showed that 86% of homeless people have mental health problems, 39% take drugs or are recovering from a drug problem, and 27% have, or are recovering from, an alcohol problem.

Patients at Arch, a community interest company set up to address the health needs of vulnerable and homeless people in Brighton, often offer insights into how services could be improved. This project will fully engage the voices of those with lived experience into the development of health services for homeless people in Brighton and Hove.

The project will integrate the experiences of people who use the services into evaluation, improvement and development of homeless health care in order to address health inequalities, reduce suffering and save lives.

In year one a health needs audit will be conducted with 150 homeless people to generate baseline data. This audit will be repeated in the third year of the project. A review of services will assess strengths and weaknesses, to then be explored through human-centred design workshops involving patients, providers and commissioners. The workshop outcomes will feed directly into service improvements.

Contact information

For further information about this project, please contact Gary Bishop, Chief Executive Officer, Arch Health.