Health Matters: The health needs of homeless people in Wales

We are pleased to publish Health Matters, a report about the health needs of homeless people in Wales. We would like to thank our partners and colleagues from the Welsh Government, Shelter Cymru, local authorities, homelessness organisations and health services who helped us to conduct the audit, analyse the results and develop the recommendations. In particular, we are extremely grateful to the people who shared their views and experiences of health problems and homelessness. Without them, this report would not exist. We must now ensure that their invaluable contributions lead to improvements in policy and practice. This report highlights how health problems can be both a cause and consequence of homelessness. 33% of respondents told us that health problems were a primary or secondary cause of their homelessness and approximately 30% said that their health had got worse over the past twelve months. Over 30% said they needed more help and support for their health problems and many faced barriers to health care, including lengthy waiting lists and being unable to get appointments. Of those who had been in hospital, a quarter were discharged onto the street or into unsuitable accommodation, which doubled their chance of re-admission.

The audit also highlights the extent of public health and wellbeing issues among homeless people, with 67% being smokers, 70% not being vaccinated against hepatitis B or the flu, and 40% having fewer than two meals per day. More than 60% of respondents over 40 years old had not had a NHS health check in the last twelve months, and at least half of eligible women did not have regular cervical smear tests or breast examinations.

Although this report contains a large number of recommendations, there are some key themes throughout. We would like health, housing and homelessness services to make every contact count, using these opportunities to identify people’s health and housing needs and help them to access appropriate support. Another important theme is collaboration between services to ensure that people’s health and housing needs are better met. There is lots of existing good practice which could be extended across Wales, including sharing of expertise, co-location of staff and joint working.

We are also keen for innovative, trauma informed and person-centred approaches to be rolled out across Wales, that recognise the challenges and barriers that homeless people face. This includes developing new and innovative solutions in both health and housing services, as well as sharing existing good practice. The recommendations in this report provide an opportunity to transform people’s lives - and also deliver savings to public services through early intervention and prevention. We look forward to working with partners to take this work forward.

Publication Date: 
2017