Access to basic health and social care (HSC) services is a fundamental human right. But access to these services is more complicated for people experiencing homelessness, in particular street homelessness.

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People experiencing homelessness are also more likely to have health needs and comorbidities which require a specialist approach. Unfortunately, the same factors that make access to health and social care so necessary often prevent people from accessing the services they need, leading to worse outcomes in the long term. Interventions are therefore needed to reduce the additional barriers that these people face. 

This project examines the evidence on interventions which help to improve access to health and social care for people experiencing homelessness.

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Findings

• Both a trauma and psychologically-informed environments approach is relevant to improve the acceptability of services to users
• Broadly, the interventions reviewed cause a moderate increase in service utilisation and are effective at removing barriers and improving access to beneficial services
• We understand very little about the impact of multi-component interventions and the mechanisms by which they affect change

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What’s next

Systematic reviews tell us as much about what we don’t know as what we do, and this review demonstrates that there is still much to learn about lifting barriers to access. We understand very little about the impact of multi-component interventions, and the mechanisms by which they affect change, which reveals where we need to focus our efforts in the future.

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