Missionbeat nurse wins Nurse of the Year Award

Paul Esplin, a nurse who plays a vital role in our Missionbeat team, was honoured last Thursday at the Hesta Australian Nursing Awards.

Paul, who joined the team in 2008, won the Nurse of the Year Award at a gala dinner in Melbourne.

The Hesta Nursing Awards, now in their fifth year, acknowledge outstanding nurses, midwives, personal care attendants and assistants in nursing. As a finalist, Paul was judged on his exceptional contribution to improving care and outcomes for patients.

Paul is co-employed by St Vincent's Hospital and Mission Australia to provide frontline medical care for the many men and women who sleep rough in the city's streets.

He works alongside Missionbeat's Community Service Workers to help meet the medical, social, mental health and housing needs of homeless people - some who have been living on the streets for decades.

For Missionbeat Manager Daniel Petsalis, having Paul on the team has provided the perfect opportunity to engage with the city's rough sleepers.

"Paul has had a huge affect on the health and wellbeing of Sydney's rough sleepers," Daniel said. "The fact that he can address their health needs on the spot - whether it's by dressing a wound or organising a vitamin B or flu shot - has made such a difference."

Congratulations Paul on this fantastic award!

Above photo (L to R): Paul Esplin and Daniel Petsalis

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.

Missionbeat nurse up for top national honour

Paul Esplin, a nurse who plays a vital role in our Missionbeat team by attending to the medical needs of Sydney’s homeless, is in the running to be named Nurse of the Year.

The well-deserved finalist in the Hesta Australian Nursing Awards joined the team in 2008 as The Michael Project Nurse (Medibeat Nurse). He is co-employed by St Vincent’s Hospital and Mission Australia to provide frontline medical care for the many men and women who sleep rough in the city’s streets.

Paul works alongside Missionbeat’s Community Service Workers to help meet the medical, social, mental health and housing needs of homeless people – some who have been living on the streets for decades. The Missionbeat team patrols the streets from 7am to 11pm daily.

“If the Missionbeat workers are worried about someone’s health I drive out to see them,” he said. “It can be any from a very simple thing to a complex health matter.

“I’m very privileged to work with Missionbeat and Mission Australia – it’s a great organisation and the Missionbeat team does an extraordinary job in very difficult circumstances. I’m just another outreach nurse doing their bit.

“Of course, it’s a huge privilege to be nominated – but it also reflects the importance of The Michael Project.”

The Michael Project was a three-year initiative working that provided a comprehensive network of support for homeless men across Sydney and enabled Mission Australia to identify programs, services and policies to overcome homelessness.

For Missionbeat Manager Daniel Petsalis, having Paul on the team has provided the perfect opportunity to engage with the city’s rough sleepers.

“Paul has had a huge affect on the health and wellbeing of Sydney’s rough sleepers,” Daniel said. “The fact that he can address their health needs on the spot – whether it’s by dressing a wound or organising a vitamin B or flu shot – has made such a difference.

“Crucially, he’s assisting those people who may not get to a doctor or hospital, and getting patched up on the street can mean the difference between stopping an infection from spreading or saving a leg from being lost to gangrene.”

The Hesta Nursing Awards, now in their fifth year, acknowledge outstanding nurses, midwives, personal care attendants and assistants in nursing. As a finalist, Paul will be judged on his exceptional contribution to improving care and outcomes for patients.

He will find out if he is Nurse of the Year at a gala dinner in Melbourne on 12 May.

For Missionbeat information and video footage visit www.missionbeat.com.au

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Missionbeat in the news

Missionbeat Manager Daniel Petsalis’s use of Twitter to assist Sydney’s homeless has made the pages of this week’s Woman’s Day.

Daniel, who now has over 1,000 followers on Twitter, spoke of how he uses technology to raise not only raise awareness of the service but also reach out to those in need:

“One lady was thinking about taking her own life and sent me a message via Twitter,” he told Woman’s Day. “I was in the right place at the right time. It meant I could send someone to help her.”

To support Mission Australia’s Missionbeat call 1800 888 868 or go to the ‘Donate Now’ button at the top left of our website

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