Healthwatch and Julian House: working together to improve homeless people’s health

We have been set up to champion the views of patients and the public, and want to particularly hear from people who usually don’t have a voice.

The joint survey will begin in September and run into the New Year. The survey is aiming to give this relatively transient population plenty of chance to have their say.

Julian House will use their links with the community to engage homeless people to complete the survey and we will ask other homeless charities, churches, etc. to publicise it.

Our volunteer network will also publicise and support this work via their local grassroots networks.

Roanne Wootten is the Partnerships Manager at Julian House. She said:

“We know that homeless people experience extreme exclusion and inequality within the healthcare system. So that is why we are working together with Healthwatch B&NES to improve access for homeless people and ensure their views can be listened to. We have worked hard to ensure improvements to the hospital discharge process for homeless people. A pilot scheme we have been running since November last year has achieved planned and managed discharges for 82% of homeless people in the RUH.”

Morgan Daly is the Manager of Healthwatch Bath and North East Somerset. He said:

“Good health leads to improvements in every area of life, and so by doing this work we hope to contribute to helping some of the residents of B&NES who most need it. This project builds on previous work Healthwatch has done with Julian House to help gypsy, Roma, traveller and boater people to improve their access to health services.”