Care services

    Care services

    We run two registered care homes aiming to provide a high level of care to older men with complex needs, including poor physical health. These care homes provide a long term secure environment for residents who have been homeless or slept rough during their lives.

    Our care homes are registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and social care in England, which ensures that services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care.

    Living on the streets can leave people with premature aging, frailty and life limiting health conditions, yet to date the needs of this group have not been well met by the social care system.

    We have seen first-hand how the right care, delivered in the right place, can be transformative in improving a person’s quality of life and supporting them to leave the streets for good. This can only be the case when that care is made available and accessible.

    Our care homes

    Palliative care

    Sadly, many people experiencing homelessness can face chronic health problems, some of which may finally lead to palliative services or hospitals. Our Palliative Care service was set up in 2008 in partnership with Marie Curie Cancer Care, and with original funding from the Department of Health.

    We support clients to make informed choices about their care, as well as supporting staff and other clients affected by the psychological and emotional aspects of approaching the end of life. We also train staff to help them deal with end of life issues including bereavement support and identifying when a client may be dying.

    An online toolkit: www.homelesspalliativecare.com – has been created by a unique research partnership between Pathway and the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research department (UCL) in collaboration with St Mungo’s and Coordinate My Care.

    Resources

    Related content

    Mental health

    Mental health

    At St Mungo’s, we take a holistic approach to mental and physical health, addressing these issues alongside each other.

    We focus on enabling our clients to access existing mental health services as well as promoting a model of psychotherapy that is effective for people experiencing homelessness. This may be in partnership with the NHS or through our own psychotherapy provision. We also operate peer support groups which encourage clients to use their skills to help others with their resilience, confidence and mental health.

    Psychotherapy

    We have long recognised that one of the most significant barriers our clients face in moving on with their lives is past and sometimes recurring trauma. St Mungo’s believes that excellent outcomes can be achieved in improving people’s wellbeing and motivating them towards recover, and that a small amount of clinical input through psychotherapy can make a significant difference in health and social care outcomes.


    We offer a number of psychotherapy practices in our services, providing flexible and humanistic talking therapy which is trauma-informed to support individuals’ recovery.

    Bereavement support

    Research by Caris shows that bereavement is cited as one of the top ten reasons why someone might become homeless. Complicated grief is something people experiencing homelessness may be more likely to encounter. This can be due to the nature of deaths they have experienced, which are often violent/traumatic, and the number of losses. This may be compounded by other losses they have suffered, including their home, their community, children being taken into care etc. Therefore, bereavement can be extremely triggering and difficult for them to process, with professional help often needed to do this. Neglected bereavement that is left unaddressed can act as a further barrier to engagement and cause isolation, suicidal ideation and other mental health problems. 

    Our Bereavement Care Coordinator provides face-to-face and over the phone bereavement support, working through recent or historic losses over a number of sessions. These can last up to a year.