The University of Surrey’s South East Homelessness Workforce Project team discuss the benefits of integrating clinical psychology into a homelessness service.
What happens when you place a trainee clinical psychologist within a homelessness organisation? Over the past four years, the University of Surrey’s South East Homelessness Workforce project, funded by NHS England, has been finding out.
The project develops and evaluates clinical psychology placements across a variety of non-NHS homelessness settings, ranging from hostels and day centres to outreach and community services.
As part of their studies, some of our trainees on the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology have been embedded within homelessness organisations across the South East and the difference they have made so far is demonstrable: alongside flexible one-to-one work with clients, trainees have facilitated reflective practice and team formulations, delivered staff training, and supported service development. They have also helped service users and staff to navigate wider systems and coordinated between services where communication has broken down.
The impact has been profound. One service user told staff, "she [the trainee] has literally changed my life," and subsequently became open to seeking further support for his mental health.
Professional attitudes also changed: trainees describe having their assumptions challenged:
“It made me realise and unpick the stigma that I have held, as part of society, about people experiencing homelessness.”
“It has empowered me to fight the stigma there is against homeless people and to stand up for them.”
Meanwhile, teams within services have come to genuinely value a psychological lens: “helping us think about what we do, and why we do it”.
It’s clear that the benefit runs in both directions. For organisations working towards psychologically-informed environments and trauma-informed practice, clinical psychology placements offer real opportunities to further embed these approaches, while clinical psychology gains a workforce that understands the realities of homelessness and is committed to working with a population the profession has too often not reached. Building this shared workforce will require training programmes, the NHS and homelessness organisations to develop effective ways of working together.
There is a growing recognition that housing alone will not resolve the full spectrum of needs of people experiencing homelessness, including mental health needs, and that psychological services, alongside other mental health professions, have a role to play in a more integrated, community-based approach. This shifting national context – which includes the proposed rollout of 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centres – is likely to open up new opportunities for partnership working.
We’ll shortly be publishing a toolkit setting out how courses and organisations can establish these placements - so keep a lookout! In the meantime, you can read more about the project on our project webpage at the University of Surrey.