Wednesday 31st May 2017
250 attend Homeless Healthcare Conference
Integrating Services for Inclusive Healthcare attracts record audience
The fourth annual conference aimed at health workers in the homelessness sector organised by the London Network of Nurses and Midwives in Homelessness and supported by the London Housing Foundation was the biggest to date.
Delegates from a wide range of professions and organisations, but all involved in helping homeless people, heard presentations on the importance of integrating healthcare from Dame Eileen Sills, Chief Nurse, Dr Al Story, Clinical Lead at Find and Treat and others. A series of workshops were also held, discussing issues that can hinder integration such as palliative care, trafficking and mental health.
Sam Dorney-Smith of the Network said “This was our best conference yet in terms of attendance, speakers and the debates we had. There is nowhere else that professionals in disparate sectors but all working to improve the health of homeless people can get together. We know that integration of services and pathways is essential if we are to improve what we do and this conference helped to identify some of the actions needed to achieve that.”
One of the delegates said: “This conference gets us all together and reminds us that we are all one big family working together for a common goal. Very important in these times of austerity when the outlook looks a bit gloomy!”
Dr Al Story said: “This packed, excellent value conference connected service users and front-line health and social care professionals from the UK and internationally to share ideas, challenge attitudes and unite against the extreme health inequities caused by homelessness that persist to this day. This was a conference that truly can translate knowledge into action and make a real difference.”
Simon Dow is Chair of the London Housing Foundation. He said: “We are very pleased to be able to support the network and especially this conference, which meets a real need among staff and also helps progress the discussions about difficult issue facing us in the homelessness world.”
