Good practice in end of life care for people who are homeless

20 Nov 2017 12:41 PM

As part of our current project, we would be interested in hearing more examples of good practice in supporting people at end of life from across the homelessness sector.

Homeless Link is a member of the Health and Wellbeing Alliance, and over the past few months, we have had the opportunity to be involved in various projects around health inequalities. One of these pieces of work, funded by NHS England, the Department of Health and Public Health England, is looking at supporting end of life care for groups that face some of the starkest health inequalities.

The project will identify and share good practice in end of life care for three specific groups: people in Gypsy and Traveller communities, people experiencing homelessness and people who are LGBTQ+. The project leads (Hospice UK, Marie Curie and Together for Short Lives) are partnering with other members of the Alliance to develop resources for each of these three groups and we are the homelessness partner. Friends, Families and Travellers and National LGB&T partnership are also involved, offering expertise on their respective groups. The project will help make the Government’s six end of life care commitments a reality for people from these specific groups. The government made these six commitments to the public to end variation in end of life care across the health system by 2020.

We know there is a lot of good practice that already exists across the homelessness sector. Earlier this year, we published a blog from St Mungo’s palliative care coordinator outlining the work they do to support people at the end of their lives. We also featured a piece from Beacon House, a day centre in Colchester,which highlighted the role non-accommodation services can play in linking people to the right palliative care, by working closely with health partners and other agencies for an individual that was no longer engaging with existing systems.

As part of our current project, we would be interested in hearing more examples of good practice in supporting people at end of life from across the homelessness sector. If you are involved in work around end of life care that you would be happy to share, please download and fill out our case study template and return to paula.reid@homelesslink.org.uk by Friday 8 December.