Nurses and Mental Health Support

An internal review of the people who stayed in Launch Housing's crisis accommodation from 2016-2022 showed: 

• 84 per cent of people had both a mental illness and substance use disorder, often a result of experiencing trauma while homelesss,
• 76 per cent had been the victim of violence while sleeping rough,
• 52 per cent had a chronic illness, including Diabetes, dental disease and Hepatitis C, and
• 15 per cent were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, despite making up just one per cent of the Victorian population.

This is why we have nurses and other health and AOD supports embedded into our core homelessness support services including the following sites: 

• Inner Melbourne Crisis Supported Accommodation – Southbank
• Bob’s Place Crisis Supported Accommodation – Dandenong
• Women Services – East St Kilda
• Elizabeth Street Common Ground

On site clinical care makes healthcare more accessible to people who are using our services, and the following supports are provided: 

Onsite AOD Support  

• AOD Case management
• Harm Reduction education
• Referrals to all AOD treatment modalities
• Court support
• Co-ordinating Opioid Replacement Therapy
• Group information sessions
• Managing the secondary NSP's
• General onsite activities (such as cook-ups and coffee club)

Onsite nurse support:

• Access to primary health support including:
• Responding to acute health conditions/situations.
• Addressing unmanaged chronic health conditions
• Providing preventative healthcare services such as immunisation.
• Healthcare promotions on relevant calendar days.

Our most effective programs are providing clients with much needed healthcare and wellbeing supports embedded into our core homelessness support services.

However, one of the most significant challenges we still face is access to appropriate, timely and ongoing mental health care for our clients. We continue to advocate for the people we work with so that their needs are taken into consideration as part of the mental health system reforms underway in Victoria.

We also measure and track wellbeing outcomes of clients in our programs. We use the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) tool to allow clients to self-identify their personal wellbeing, so that case managers can identify, tailor and coordinate their service needs. 

Read more about the issue and solutions to address it in our Insights Paper Series on Health and Homelessness here.