Celebrating homeless services in Brighton this Christmas

Justlife is one of our closest partners, and really raises the bar for the care we can offer our patients who are going through the toughest of times. Their health engagement workers work closely with patients who are living in emergency accommodation, and have multiple health challenges, providing support and friendship when it is most needed, and making it easier to support these patients in a medical capacity. They also support people to address their wider needs such as accessing benefits, housing and understanding their rights and entitlements.

Our city council supports us in our success on a number of ambitious schemes, such as our Covid response Care and Protect model, and our grant-funded health improvement scheme, Common Ambition. They also provide housing support for people facing homelessness. Working alongside the council has been instrumental in our success on these city-wide projects.

Arch provides GP leadership and Team Co-ordination for the Pathway team at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, which also includes team members from Justlife and SCFT. The team offers additional support to homeless patients from their admission, throughout their stay and arranges a safe, managed discharge when the time comes to leave. With the team now in place for 10 years, the hospital is seeing lower rates of self-discharge, a reduction in the number of people being discharged to the street, a reduction in the use of A&E, unplanned admissions and the number of people returning to hospital within 30 days.

Southdown provides specialist housing, care and support in Sussex, and their support workers offer invaluable care to Arch patients. The support on offer is holistic, person-centred, and positive – the focus is on recovery.

The Brighton Change Grow Live Recovery Service offers recovery-focused drug and alcohol treatment and support. This includes psychological-and-social-orientated group-work programs, talking therapies, substitute prescribing and street outreach engagement. Service users can also access support from peer mentors and recovery motivators with lived experience.

The Brighton service provides a vital source of support to any Arch patients that need it. We are so grateful for their responsiveness in supporting patients who are street homeless, by going out through the night to meet with them and by offering all kinds of practical support.

Their diverse and skilled staff teams, including specialist LGBTQIA and B.A.M.E workers, have also offered excellent training to Arch staff and have kindly given talks at Arch events.

YMCA DLG are a dynamic, proactive organisation, offering accommodation and services to young people who need housing support. We partner with them on our “Step Down beds” service, offering people leaving hospital with a suitable place to recover in, with proper clinical support.

YMCA Brighton specialises in supported accommodation for people who would otherwise be homeless, in Brighton and Hove. Their skilled staff deliver tailored advice, guidance and personal development opportunities, to help their clients fulfil their aspirations towards a better life. They also offer a range of work and learning opportunities. These all are designed as safe and secure spaces to meet others, to learn new skills and explore new opportunities.

We are grateful to be part of a large PCN in Brighton, working alongside 8 local surgeries and a brilliant multi-disciplinary outreach team providing primary healthcare in new and innovative ways for our communities.

This group of experts by experience is pioneering a new way of working in homeless health, one that is caring, humane, democratic, and ultimately produces a health system that works for the most vulnerable. Since the start of the Common Ambition project, the group has tackled a number of tough issues, as well as establishing themselves as authorities and challenging established ways of working. Their work has garnered a lot of interest from city institutions, with growing recognition that those with lived experience of homelessness are best placed to lead improvements to the homeless health system.

We work closely with the Brighton arm of the Front Line Network, who provide vital connection services for frontline workers in the sector. Skilling up, making connections, working in partnership and all round support for people in sometimes challenging roles with high levels of responsibility, we have worked with the frontline network to circulate news, educational opportunities and a well-reviewed homeless health conference.

The Health Foundation is an independent charity committed to bringing about better health and healthcare for people in the UK. Their generous grant has funded the Brighton & Hove Common Ambition project, our city-wide partnership project to improve the homeless health system. On top of the funding, the Foundation provides mentoring and support, as well as networking opportunities to Common Ambition’s steering group (see above).

St John Ambulance Homeless Healthcare Service provide a hugely valuable mobile outreach service in Brighton, offering first aid, general health support and health checks, wound and dressing support, specialised foot care with a podiatrist, signposting to useful services, providing essentials and generally providing a listening ear and a friendly face. They also provide static podiatry clinics at First Base and outside Antifreeze, alongside domiciliary podiatry referrals.

Sussex Nightstop is a charity serving young people aged 16-25 who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, providing safe, welcoming places to stay with trained volunteer hosts. This prevents rough sleeping and the dangers associated with it. While guests recuperate in host homes, support coordinators connect them with local services, including housing advisors, to help them find safe and suitable accommodation. They also operate an on-call service to support both guests and hosts.

The Clocktower Sanctuary is the only drop-in day centre in Brighton & Hove for 16-to-25 year olds who are homeless or insecurely housed. They provide practical and emotional support to help young people to move from crisis to stability. They provide a hot lunch, shower & laundry facilities as well as daily classes and activities, from  music to yoga, martial arts and photography They also offer weekly activities chosen by the clients like ice skating, bowling, lazerzone and go karting. Food parcels are also available.

Brighton Womens Centre supports women dealing with bereavement or trauma, women who have been through homelessness or the criminal justice system, survivors of abuse or discrimination, women on low incomes and those struggling with long-term mental and physical health conditions. They offer a phone line, a foodbank, low-cost counselling and psychotherapy, Ofsted-registered childcare, services for women in the criminal justice system, accommodation support, well-being activities, peer to peer support and signposting to relevant local services. Support their Christmas campaign!

Bloom Café and Hope Centre exists to support women in Brighton. They do this by providing workshops which focus on creativity, wellbeing and learning new skills. They also run a series of drop-ins and workshops to make it easier for women to access advice and support from the services they would like to engage with.

Brighton Unemployed Centre Families Project provides practical support, education, advice and much more to those in poverty, in poor living conditions, benefit claimants, the unwaged, pensioners, families and those on low incomes and suffering social exclusion and poor wellbeing.

Friends, Families and Travellers works to end racism and discrimination against Romany, Roma and Traveller people and to protect the right to pursue a nomadic way of life. They support individuals and families with the issues that matter most to them, from signposting to providing advocacy and advice at both a local and national level. FFT also work to transform systems and institutions to address the root causes of the inequalities faced by Romany, Traveller and Roma communities, such as delivering inclusive services training and delivering health interventions.

This multi-faith charity has mobilised a huge amount of volunteers, in order to organise events and support for people facing homelessness, involving them in the community and providing food, communal meals, activities, essentials and those important extras in order to help them whilst navigating homelessness and when they move to stable accommodation.

Street Support Network works online and offline, using creative technology to connect and support local people and organisations tackling homelessness. It is working to become a citizen-led network, and a central place online to find out about homelessness, see what support services are available nearby, how to access them, and where there are gaps. the network also connects people in order to coordinate action.

Arch Healthcare is a very special organisation which offers a warm-hearted welcome and amazing services for anyone who is facing homelessness in Brighton & Hove. Arch’s services are designed so that people in crisis can experience the highest quality of care, delivered with kindness and humanity, with the goal of restoring health, strength and wellbeing. All of this is made possible by the compassion, hard work and dedication of the incredible team members, each one dedicated to the cause with great and enduring passion. For this we say an enormous – Thank You and we wish you a very Happy Christmas.