My name is Ben Jameson I’m a GP and I’d like to talk to you today about the health inclusion pathway Plymouth this is a new initiative um that’s a collaboration between um our partners in Plymouth to provide better health care for people experiencing homelessness and multiple deprivation so for many years
We’ve known that people who are experiencing homelessness also face other challenges so these can include addiction infections injuries learning disability and brain injury these result in people requiring um hospital treatment more frequently than other parts of the population we know that many people who experience homelessness
Are frail at a much younger age and are more likely to die at a younger age Plymouth is a very generous City we’ve got excellent Health Services across the city but joining those together isn’t always easy so my name is Kate Howard I am a community outreach sister so my my
Role is around the physical health of this cohort of individuals so the homeless the barriers generally for um the homeless population um are both intrinsic and extrinsic so intrinsically we’re looking at that shame that embarrassment you know that feeling that they’re being judged um the the trust as
Well is a huge part of the relationship that we have to build up with with these individuals they’ve previously been treated poorly they’ve previously had that judgment and therefore accessing Healthcare is a big thing for them um and they’re also sometimes they have chaotic Lifestyles and actually we have
To respect that that chaos our routines don’t fit in with that chaos and therefore we have to be a bit more adaptable we have to be a bit more flexible about the services that we can offer to them my name is Mike Turner I’m the support worker with the hip team and
On a day-to-day basis I tend to help people access Services uh whether that be physically taking them to and from GP appointments to the pharmacist um if they need to access the job center or benefits uh things like that I’m there specifically to help them with with day-to-day bits so the health inclusion
Pathway as part of the alliance um aims to provide a wraparound care uh so that people don’t have to keep repeating their story which can ret traumatize them um we work with other organizations uh within the alliance the council Harbor bcha in order to make sure that these
People have Fair access to services that they can get their benefits they can get what they’re entitled to and also not be held back by their social circumstances there’s a big thing at the moment about digital exclusion for this group of individuals um a lot of
Surgeries are now using EC conso as the only way to get access to GP appointments again this is a massive barrier for our guys you know they don’t have access to the the technology that we have access to some of them are illiterate and can’t read what’s in
Front of them as well so there’s a there’s those kind of barriers as well there’s barriers in that people who were released from prison aren’t always told that whilst they’re in prison they’re no longer with a GP surgery so they then have to re-register with a GP surgery so
They go weeks without medication because they’re not familiar of how to access that service again so it’s about bringing all that together and supporting to make sure that we really do our best to include our most vulnerable in society my name is Darren Lloyd I’m the operational lead and I’m also the mental
Health nurse with the team I’ve got 30 years experience as a mental health nurse uh a lot of the people that we work with have got uh mental health issues in tandem with their physical health issues and their social issues so uh I explore and work on those with them
Some of the the misconception around homeless people is that it’s a lifestyle Choice especially around drug and alcohol use uh it doesn’t take into account people’s backstory their lives uh a lot of the people that we’ve worked with if not all uh have encounter trauma at some stage in their life and use
Drugs and alcohol or are homeless as ways of coping with that trauma I think Gabel mate said that we will understand ourselves as we have been understood we will love ourselves we have felt loved and we will also care for ourselves as we have been cared for as as young
Children and so if there’s any level of um neglect abuse uh relational dysfunction these people won’t have the same um coping mechanisms if we take it right back to its core one of the reasons that people experience homelessness is due to relational difficulties by relational difficulties what I mean is they’ve not
Really had the opportunities or privileges at the start of their life that perhaps other people might have had this leads to difficulty in being able to trust others so like thinking about trust and thinking about relational safety then that really informs how engaged people are with services with
Other people and generally if we think about substance use the use of drugs essentially that’s a process of emotional regulation and that fills the void that they’re not getting through relational safety and that sort of reinforces the idea of how trusting they need to be of others so at the moment we’re
Collaborating with public health with Vapes because our guys do not um engage well with new teams and at the moment we have had 30% of our population give up smoking with smoking sensation their percentage is 40% so we’re only 10% off what smoking sensation have done already
So my name is Shona Rogers I’m my job is a peer researcher um for the health inclusion pathway Plymouth team and my ultimate goal is to get research from patients about their experiences with the team and things that we can do better you can look at statistics and I’m sure the
Government do that but I think the real true voice of somebody that’s had lived experience is really powerful and they can suggest ways that the services can be improved as well and they’re the ones that have used them so they know exactly what’s right and what’s wrong it’s incredibly difficult to navigate the
Health system for people who are experiencing multiple deprivation and that is why we’ve come together as University Hospitals Plymouth Livewell Southwest one Devon the Plymouth Alliance and Plymouth city council together with primary care to form a response that is appropriate to people’s level of need we’ve built a lot of
Relationships we’ve built a lot of um familiarity between different Services we’ve got our name out there so that people know what service we offer and what it is that we do I think one of the biggest things that we’ve achieved is is bridging that link between primary and
Secondary so having a a hand on the community as well as in reach at dford we’re not a Panacea we’re not going to go in there and solve all those problems in one go it is about looking at step-by-step approach really the biggest challenge for our service but also my
Biggest hope for our service is that the wider network has a greater understanding of the needs of our client group so I think the biggest work we can do is to be that Advocate I would like to see more funding for our homeless population I would like to see more hous closing
Options for our homeless population I would like to see more staff doing this role there’s only a certain amount of us in the city I think the more people that are invested in making the changes and helping um these people then you know it’s only going to make the service
Better for them long term it’s absolutely essential that Services across the city recognize the levels of need experienced by people who who are homeless so it’s really exciting that our system is coming together in this way because this will mean that it’s less likely that people fall through the
Cracks and that we can work towards sustained recovery for people so that they don’t have to experience this cycle of homelessness addiction poverty hospital admission and ill Health