Surviving homelessness
John Conolly, Lead Counsellor in our Westminster Homeless
Health Service recently featured in a short film that looks at some
of the causes of homelessness.
'Surviving Homelessness' explores how mental wellbeing is
adversely affected when someone is sleeping rough, and how
recovering good mental health is a key component in helping
homeless people to rebuild their lives.
Our multi-award winning (1) Westminster homeless health service has been established in the borough 15
years. In the face of research evidence that up to 70% of single
homeless people have personality disorder (2), the counselling part
of the service provides personality disorder (pd) informed
counselling which takes into account the traumatic origins of
single homeless people, their chaotic circumstances, trauma
reactions, compromised 'mentalisation' and their need to
self-medicate.
"A lot of homeless people that I have come across exclude
themselves because they don't have the social, psychological and
emotional equipment to engage, and society and social institutions
excludes them because they don't have the understanding and tools
to include them. It's a tragedy, it's tragic," John
indicates.
By meeting people 'where they are at' and offering
a mixture of non-contract and NICE recommended pd counselling
contracts of no less than 6 months (3), the homeless health
counselling service enables people to move from an unstructured
form of engagement to a more structured one at a rate which is
sustainable for them, and which lays the foundation from which to
engage constructively with the more structured approaches of
mainstream services.
As well as providing psychological and emotional counselling
services, our Westminster Homeless Health Service provides a
holistic approach to homeless health care to include: providing
physical/nursing care; working with housing services; and also
working closely with local authorities and providing support in
relation to benefits. For more information about the team, visit their service page.
You can view the full 20 minute film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQiwAI8NzI8.
1. The Homeless Health Counselling Team won National BACP Award
2005 for the most innovative scheme in Britain for the Advancement
of Counselling and Psychotherapy
1.1. The homeless counselling group as part of a larger
multi-disciplinary team won National Health and Social Care Award
2006.
1.2. The Homeless Health Team CLCH NHS staff award, 2014
2. Maguire, N. J. et al., 2009, 'Homelessness and complex trauma:
a review of the literature', Southampton, UK, University of
Southampton, cited in Department of Health, 'Healthcare for Single
Homeless People', March 2010, Office of the Chief Analyst.
3. Two staff are nationally accredited trainers and deliver 3 day
Knowledge and Understanding Personality Disorder Framework,
awareness raising workshops.