Integrating housing and mental health services
How one NHS Foundation Trust is addressing the link between poor mental health and housing need
HEALTH, CARE & SUPPORT
Image: Istock
Chris Harris
Associate Director of Housing for Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Chris Harris
Associate Director of Housing for Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Issue 69 | December 2023
Decent, secure and affordable accommodation is essential for our health and wellbeing. However, more than half of people in the UK who are homeless or have housing issues have mental health problems.
There is growing evidence and awareness linking poor-quality housing and homelessness to negative short and long-term mental health outcomes. Not having the right housing can be a huge challenge to mental health recovery and result in an individual’s mental health needs being met in inappropriate locations, such as inpatient mental health wards or emergency care settings.
New approach
Sussex Partnership is leading one of the first initiatives in the country that directly tackles accommodation issues and homelessness by integrating new housing roles into clinical teams.
The NHS Trust, which provides services across Sussex for people with mental health problems and learning disabilities, co-produced these new ways of working with people using services, local authorities and voluntary sector partners, and they are now a core part of their clinical mental health teams.
In December 2022, Sussex Partnership introduced Housing Specialists within their West Sussex and Brighton and Hove adult mental health teams. Housing Specialists are attached to host Local Housing Authorities under a partnership arrangement receiving professional supervision, specialist training and support.
The housing workforce support mental health team staff to identify housing needs, respond to enquiries, assess applications, provide advice and guidance to people with a range of accommodation needs. A key aspect of these roles is to support the Trust to exercise its Duty to Refer as a public body as defined under the Homelessness Reduction Act.
Identifying housing needs early
Having access to good-quality housing is a fundamental foundation for positive mental health and emotional wellbeing.
One of the key objectives of our housing strategy is to embed housing expertise across our mental health services. To deliver this we have created a Housing Needs Triage process to help our frontline staff identify housing needs as early as possible during our core care planning.
These new processes help our clinical teams to quickly identify housing and homelessness needs as soon as people come into contact with our adult mental health services. A new team of Housing Specialists, located with our local authority housing partners, then work alongside people with housing needs to deliver housing advice, support, and interventions that prevent or relieve homelessness.
We have also recruited housing staff into our transformed community mental health teams who provide expert housing advice and input to people at the earliest possible point of their treatment and created systems that record useable housing data that shapes our future plans.
The impact of the new housing specialists has been apparent during the first six months of operation, with 251 people getting new accommodation or supported to retain their existing housing, and housing related delays to discharge reduced by more than 50%.
Best practice
This work has been highlighted as an example of best practice by national homelessness charity, Crisis and Pathway, the UK’s leading homelessness and inclusion healthcare charity.
More details of Sussex Partnership's strategy can be found here ICS Mental Health and Housing Strategy
“The impact of the new housing specialists has been apparent during the first six months of operation, with 251 people getting new accommodation or supported to retain their existing housing.”
Identifying housing needs early
Having access to good-quality housing is a fundamental foundation for positive mental health and emotional wellbeing.
One of the key objectives of our housing strategy is to embed housing expertise across our mental health services. To deliver this we have created a Housing Needs Triage process to help our frontline staff identify housing needs as early as possible during our core care planning.
These new processes help our clinical teams to quickly identify housing and homelessness needs as soon as people come into contact with our adult mental health services. A new team of Housing Specialists, located with our local authority housing partners, then work alongside people with housing needs to deliver housing advice, support, and interventions that prevent or relieve homelessness.
We have also recruited housing staff into our transformed community mental health teams who provide expert housing advice and input to people at the earliest possible point of their treatment and created systems that record useable housing data that shapes our future plans.
The impact of the new housing specialists has been apparent during the first six months of operation, with 251 people getting new accommodation or supported to retain their existing housing, and housing related delays to discharge reduced by more than 50%.
“The impact of the new housing specialists has been apparent during the first six months of operation, with 251 people getting new accommodation or supported to retain their existing housing.”
Best practice
This work has been highlighted as an example of best practice by national homelessness charity, Crisis and Pathway, the UK’s leading homelessness and inclusion healthcare charity.
More details of Sussex Partnership's strategy can be found here ICS Mental Health and Housing Strategy
