Homelessness Week: Improving health outcomes for people experiencing homelessness

Bolton Clarke will be part of a four-year National Health and Medical Research Council funded project designed to inform better health outcomes for people experiencing homelessness.

The Building Responsive Integrated Delivery of Health and Social Care through Mobile Clinics project will seek to co-design, implement and evaluate integrated mobile health and social care clinics with the aim of improving access, continuity of care and health outcomes.

It will be led by Monash University’s Professor Suzanne Nielsen, Dr Elizabeth Sturgiss and Nilakshi Gunatillaka with partners including Bolton Clarke, cohealth, Launch Housing, Wheels of Wellness, ACT Health, CAHMA, ANU and the University of Glasgow.

Bolton Clarke Senior Research Fellow Dr Rajna Ogrin will contribute to the co-design of mobile clinic models and support translation of research findings into services.

Bolton Clarke Homeless Persons Program Manager Dee Loader said people experiencing homelessness often have complex health and social needs but face significant barriers navigating fragmented health and support systems.

"This project provides an opportunity to help shape more integrated, accessible models of care that improve continuity of care and health outcomes for some of our most vulnerable community members,” she said.

The project will build on the Deep End Living Lab series of projects, which sought to understand the healthcare experiences of people without stable housing and the healthcare workers tasked with their care, and on international evidence which shows comprehensive and integrated mobile clinics improve health outcomes for people experiencing homelessness.