Compass follows three journeys away from homelessness

Around one in five Australians will experience a mental illness in their lifetime – and of those many are young people who end up homeless.

In fact, the vast majority of homeless people who sleep rough on Sydney's streets have serious mental health problems, including schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, depression, anxiety disorders and mental trauma after a shocking event such as the loss of a child.

On Sunday ABC1’s Compass featured ‘A Roof Over Their Heads’, a film focusing on how Mission Australia supports homeless people in Sydney. The program followed the lives of three young men who Mission Australia worked with in 2010 to help manage their illness, find work and build independent lives.

The three men were all participants in Mission Australia’s Inner City Housing Program (ICHP). This program, which we ran in partnership with St Vincent's Hospital and Churches Community Housing, had terrific results in turning people's lives around - with 70 per cent successfully moving into independent accommodation on completing the 18-month program.

The Compass film was run just days after the release of ‘How homeless men are faring – Some initial outcomes from The Michael Project’, a snapshot’ report on Mission Australia’s initiative that aims to help homeless men rebuild their lives. This initiative has also shown early signs of success, with participants reporting improvements in their job prospects and housing circumstances after the first three months.

For more of an insight into the causes of homelessness, and how Mission Australia strives to offer solutions, watch  "A Roof Over Their Heads" here.

Read our previous story on ICHP here.

Inner City Housing Project making long-term progress with Sydney's roughsleepers

The Daily Telegraph newspaper today has a story on a Mission Australia initiative that is delivering significant results in the lives of mentally ill homeless people and for the broader community.

The Inner City Housing Program (ICHP) is response to the challenges faced by mentally ill people who sleep rough in Sydney’s inner city.

An estimated 80% of roughsleepers have serious mental health problems – schizophrenia, bi-polar, depression, anxiety disorders and mental trauma.

In Sydney, a regular outcome for this client group is that, because they lack the intensive support they need for their condition, they’re often admitted to hospital for psychiatric care.

Hospital admission is an extremely costly option and offers only short term support – it isn’t long before they’re discharged back on the streets…and the cycle begins again.

It costs the government around $900 per night to provide a person with mental illness hospital care. In fact, there are estimates it has cost NSW Health up to $60,000 a year to provide emergency medical care to a homeless person with mental illness in the past.

The Inner City Housing Program (ICHP) – which Mission Australia runs in partnership with St Vincent's Hospital and Churches Community Housing – has had terrific results at turning people's lives around while saving the state's health budget huge amounts of money.

The ICHP provides long-term (usually 18-24 months) supported accommodation in six inner city terraces where counsellors work with residents to stay healthy and develop living skills (eg: grocery shopping, food preparation) which are essential to maintaining permanent accommodation. The idea is that after stabilising their lives at ICHP Mission Australia can then move them forward into independent living.

Only 4 per cent of people arrive at ICHP from stable housing. After clients spend an average of 18 months with the program, we have been successful in moving more than 70 per cent into independent accommodation.

Even better, the ICHP delivers huge savings. Compared to the $900 per night to provide someone with psychiatric care in hospital it costs ICHP around $35 per night to give someone a bed and provide the support they need.

And in terms of managing people’s mental health needs, ICHP's results speak for themselves...

Brian* (not real name) entered ICHP in May 2008. Prior to ICHP he had spent 133 days in hospital with mental illness. Since coming to ICHP he’s not been admitted once.

Sarah* (not real name) entered ICHP in October 2008. Prior to arriving she had spent 70 days in hospital. Again, since coming to ICHP, Sarah’s not been admitted to hospital a single day.

But ICHP can only help around 20 residents at a time. Mission Australia would love to assist more – we know the demand is out there – but we just don’t have the resources.

By any measure ICHP is a more successful and significantly cheaper method of providing long-term assistance to roughsleepers with mental health issues than the alternative.

Mission Australia encourages the NSW Government to consider directing some of the money they invest in emergency mental health care for this client group into ICHP - and services like it - and expand their capacity.

It would result in better outcomes for the individuals, the community and the state’s health budget.

It’s just common sense.

*Names have been changed to protect client's identity