Integrated care for homeless people-sharing knowledge and experience in practice, education and research: Results of the networking efforts to find Homeless Health Workers

摘要

Over the last dozen years, as doctors for homeless people in Pittsburgh, USA and Amsterdam, the Netherlands, we have been networking internationally and travelled the streets to find social and medical workers who bring care to homeless people. We felt the need to reach out on the streets to meet homeless people and their problems, and to reach into mainstream services, academic centres and research institutes, to meet the needs of professionals in housing, social and medical work to deliver integrated care. We sought knowledge and experience to be integrated in practice, education and research, to better serve homeless people.The networking efforts resulted in several meetings in the USA and Europe. In the USA, in 2005, the inaugural International Street Medicine Symposium was held in Pittsburgh, the second in Santa Barbara in 2006, and the third in Houston in 2007, www.streetmedicine.org. In Europe, a 'Doctors for Homeless' workshop was organized in cooperation with homeless health workers from Oxford University, Harvard University and the US Street Medicine Network, during the fifth International Conference on Urban Health in Amsterdam, www.icuh2006.comBuilding on the strength and goals of FEANTSA, the European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless www.feantsa.org, meetings were held to integrate social and medical care for homeless people, which resulted in the European Network of Homeless Health Workers (ENHW). The efforts of FEANTSA's policy officer Dearbhal Murphy have resulted in a seasonal ENHW newsletter and launch of the network at the 2nd Oxford Health and Homelessness Conference at 24 September 2007.The Oxford Health and Homelessness Conferences have found their roots in the networking efforts of Dr Angela Jones, and have become part of the Oxford online curriculumKey Concepts in Provision of Health Care to People Experiencing Homelessness, which is available for people from all medical and social work/support disciplines who work with homeless people and want a better understanding of the interplay of social and medical issues that affect their clients. At the 2nd Oxford Health and Homelessness Conference members of the US and European Network were present to further explore a global mission.