Homelessness Resources

New guidance, produced as the result of a 15-month project funded by the Burdett Trust
for Nursing during 2023 and 2024, has been published by the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) to improve the care of people experiencing homelessness with diabetes. 

People experiencing homelessness with diabetes face multiple challenges and are known to have poor health outcomes. They are at much higher risk of serious complications or death because of their condition, partly due to daily challenges of accessing healthy food and adequate care.

People experiencing homelessness are generally not seen in traditional models of intermediate care. An out-of-hospital care model for those experiencing homelessness has been established in Leeds. This offers good quality accommodation in community settings with a multidisciplinary team to assess people’s health and social care needs and offer step up or step down from hospital care. This has demonstrated a reduction in emergency department attendances and unplanned hospital stays, as well as an opportunity for people to be included in a home first model. Unexpected outcomes include a reduction in street sex work for the women who have been engaged on the project, less engagement with the criminal justice system, a place to facilitate prison releases, and an environment where end-oflife care can be delivered and achieve preferred place of death. Future investment is needed for out-of-hospital care to be an equitable offer in the city available to all.

The experience of homelessness raises a person’s risk for a number of communicable diseases, long-term conditions, mental health issues and substance use. The trauma caused by fleeing from war and persecution and leaving the security of your home also has a profound impact on mental and physical health. Health outcomes for people from the Gypsy, Traveller and Roma communities are among the poorest of any group, and sex workers have among the highest rates of drug addiction.