GOING BEYOND THE BASICS TO HELP THE HOMELESS

Working with homeless people during the COVID-19 response has been the highlight of Karen Crook’s long nursing career.

Karen worked as the weekend clinical lead of a multidisciplinary wellness team who helped homeless people into accommodation and connected them to health services.

“We worked in pairs and went around lots of the areas homeless people frequent and asked them if they would like to get off the street,” Karen says.

“Their reaction was amazing – they were so humbled and appreciative and often they were tearful.”

Karen says the work has been a privilege, with people taking the wellness team into their trust.

“We take a holistic and wellbeing approach. We ask them how they came to be in this situation and while they may be shy initially once they get started they just share their stories,” Karen says.

Common themes to their stories include trauma, sexual abuse, mental health issues, drug and other substance abuse, and prostitution.

Most of the people Karen and the team helped were male, aged from their teens into their seventies. The majority of people wanted to be homed and stayed in the motels or campground accommodation found for them.

Karen says the accommodation providers worked hard to make this a sustainable initiative. A few providers employed kind, empathetic security staff who helped the newly-homed people feel safe.

“I’ve always been passionate about helping people with mental health and addiction issues, or who have been traumatised, and it’s been good to hear their stories and be able to meet their needs are. Looking back over the past few months I really feel this has been a highlight in my career.”

Above: Madhu O’Brien, Karen Crook and Janice Howard were part of the wellness team helping get homeless people into accommodation during lockdown.