Pathway and the Faculty for Homeless and Inclusion Health: Regional London Meeting
Last week, I attended the regional London Meeting for Pathway and the Faculty of Homeless and Inclusion Health.
What is Pathway and the Faculty?
PATHWAY is the UK's leading homeless healthcare charity. They aim to integrate care within the NHS and voluntary sectors for homeless people: from GPs, nurses, housing professionals, hospitals and of course us dentists! They help with the logistics of accessing healthcare for homeless people e.g. recovering important documents, linking to community services, registration with GPs etc.
The Faculty for Homeless and Inclusion Health is a network of health professionals working together to help those who find accessing health care most difficult:
- The homeless
- Vulnerable migrants
- Travellers
- Sex workers
It is free to join the network if you are health professional who manages these groups of people. This will help you keep up to date with current research as well as linking with other professionals in your area who also work with these people. Click here to join!
Homelessness, Physiotherapy and Autism
The regional meeting held at UCLH covered a couple of very interesting subject matters and there was lots of discussion within the audience.
1. Physiotherapy and patients who are homeless with Jo Dawes
Jo Dawes discussed her plans to set up a research project into access to physiotherapy for patients who are homeless and how physiotherapy treatment can positively impact a homeless person's quality of life. It was interesting to compare how different cities may have different needs for their homeless populations: Jo explained how the service in Glasgow where she previously worker, provided care for their homeless population.
2. Autism and homelessness with Dr Paula Grant
Dr Paula Grant explored the links between autism and homelessness and presented the findings of her recent research in the area. I found this talk particularly interesting as within my day to day practice, I manage both autistic patients and the homeless. She spoke of how she found that the lifestyle of the homeless has some advantages to people who are autistic e.g. not fitting into social norms, flexibility, limited interaction with others.
Many thanks to those who spoke at the meeting and it was fantastic to meet others who are passionate about providing health care to hard to reach groups. Homeless and Inclusion Health hold an annual conference in London, March 7/8th. Hopefully I can get to go and see some of you there. Click here for details.
Do you treat any of these socially excluded groups? Let me know how you manage these patients in the comments section.
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