Overview

Text: Southwark Law Centre's Homeless Patients Legal Advocacy Service

Melu Mekonnen (Homeless Health Team, Guy's and St Thomas'): We encounter a lot of homeless patients who struggle with homelessness as a result of immigration issues or benefit issues.

Often many homeless people have got tri mobility where there are physical health issues as well as mental health issues and they are not able to engage by themselves to be able to resolve such matters when they are struggling with homelessness.

They need someone to advocate for, to represent them and to support them properly to be able to engage in hospital and in their community at the same time.

It is an amazing project that gives me a sense of fulfillment.

Text: Patients supported by the service have shown a 94% reduction of admissions and a 97% reduction in length of hospital stay after 6 months.

Van Ferguson (Immigration Solicitor, Southwark Law Centre): My name is Van Ferguson I am an immigration solicitor working for Southwark Law Centre.

Unfortunately these groups of people we interact with quite a lot in the project happen to only engage with these services when they're very, very unwell and therefore the need to assist them is even greater for them.

We can point to case studies we've got where those people have now been able to secure accommodation long term and be recognised as people in need of support and care.

We've been able to regularise their status so they can actually access mainstream support and be properly supported through it.

I think for a lot of those people it can be a little bit of life and death, whether those people engage with our service or not.

That's how important it is, and it feels sometimes that the law centre acts as a another emergency service or another A&E department, as we work with the hospital teams, as we are all under time pressures, and we all have to work to the vulnerabilities of each client which can be quite extreme.