The MDHST is a fieldwork community team, who work with individuals who are homeless or at risk of homelessness within a range of care programmes. These include: Mental Health, Family & Childcare, Learning Disability, Older People, Young People, Offenders, Physical Disabilty and Addiction.
The team utilises an Assertive Outreach Model in their practice. This model is a flexible and creative team based approach to working with the complex needs and wishes of the client group. It was developed as a means of reaching people who are difficult to engage or who have been inadequately served in the mainstream development of community and inpatient services. Assertive Outreach is primarily about gaining the trust of individuals who are often difficult to engage in services and working with them in their own environment.
Referral Criteria
An open referral system is offered with minimal criteria is used to enable homeless people to access the service. Individuals can self refer or be referred from any agency.
Referrals from NIHE are made through the Homelessness Services Unit (HSU).
The duty system within NIHE (HSU) continues to operate from 9.30am-5.00pm, Monday - Friday (1.00pm - 5.00pm Wednesday).
The aims of the team are:
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To provide professional intervention to engage people with multiple needs, who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
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To facilitate social care and support to people with multiple needs who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
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To promote effective channels of communication between statutory and voluntary agencies to improve access to healthcare.
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To improve the quality of services for people with multiple needs who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, through training and advice.
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To identify and evaluate gaps in services and recommend appropriate changes for improvement
Service Provision
Permanent and temporary accommodation support.
The team offers support to clients and staff within temporary accommodation and clients who live in permanent accommodation, who are at risk of homelessness. Individual members of the team offer a flexible service where they see service users in their own environment, carry out follow up work with individuals such as, practical and emotionsal support, assessment, care planning, review, networking, liaison and advocacy.
Floating support
The floating support service is offered to people who are at risk of becoming homeless or those who have acquired or about to acquire accommodation after living in temporary accommodation.
The floating support staff initially assess the needs of individuals who may require this service. Following this process a support plan is agreed to address the needs of service users, which is regularly reviewed.
Other Agencies:
Duty System within NIHE:
A member of staff is placed in the HSU, where their role is to assess individuals who present as having multiple needs. During assessment the team member will gather information from the individual and other professionals. They will then recommend the most appropriate available accommodation for the presenting individual. Follow up support is then offered to individuals in hostels or other temporary accommodation by the team.
The team also work with a range of other agencies to enable people who are homeless to gain access to services. These include both statutory and voluntary agencies within a range of programmes including:
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Mental Health
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Physical Health
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Learning disability
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Family & Childcare
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Older people
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Sensory impairment
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Addiction
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Probation
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PSNI
Working Hours:
9.00am - 5.00pm, Monday - Friday