It is too easy for us to walk past the homeless person pretending that they do not exist. It would come as a shock to most people to realise that there are approximately 13000 people who are homeless in Perth on any one night.
For the homeless or marginalised person there are many barriers to seeking out healthcare.
The two biggest barriers we have come across are:
To overcome these barriers it is vitally important that we recognise that a homeless person is exactly that - a person. They just happen to be homeless. Like all people recognition of our individual needs and desires are important. It is easy to turn a blind eye and pretend that the person doesn’t exist and yet all they may want is a shoulder to cry on or someone to help solve a practical problem.
To provide healthcare to homeless and marginalised people we work in collaboration with other agencies that work with these groups. This enables us to go to places where homeless and marginalised people feel comfortable. We go to the homeless and marginalised person rather than wait for them to come to us.
The person is seen regardless of background and all services are provided at no cost to the homeless or marginalised person.
A homeless person has an expected lifespan of 44.5 years.
Australia has an appalling track record when it comes to tracking the health care of homeless people.
Research from Germany showed that the average lifespan of a homeless person was 44.5 years. This compares with a lifespan of 80 years for the average Australian. Danish research showed that homeless men are 2.8 times as likely to die and homeless women are 5.6 more likely to die from natural causes than their mainstream counterparts and 14.6 times more likely to die from unintentional injury. The most common problems seen amongst homeless people are mental disorders, alcohol and drug use, injuries, skin infections and infestations, poor foot and mouth care, poor compliance with medications and blood- borne viruses (hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV). Mobile GP recognises that health problems do not occur separately to social problems and has the dual aim of improving the health of people while they are homeless and breaking the cycle of homelessness.