University of Notre Dame Australia - Home2Health Team

Homeless Healthcare has a long standing research and evaluation collaboration with the Home2Health research team, now located with the Institute for Health Research, at The University of Notre Dame.

The Home2Health team’s research plays a critical role in demonstrating how the Homeless Healthcare is making a significant difference to the health and wellbeing of people who are, or who have experienced homelessness. Moreover, their independent evaluations powerfully show how Homeless Healthcare is contributing to reductions in costly recurrent hospital use by people experiencing homelessness.

This ongoing research partnership not only includes the evaluation of HHC’s impact, but also the development of new research ideas, grant applications and a range of other supportive efforts.

Through this collaboration, Homeless Healthcare has also been able to strengthen evidence to advocate for services that address gaps in the system for people who are homeless such as the much needed Medical Respite Centre and Women’s clinic, both of which commenced in the last 12 months.

Other Research Collaborations

Hepatitis C Research

International Expert Visits Project

The Homeless Team at Royal Perth Hospital is modelled on the Pathway UK initiative, which had developed an effective model of enhanced care coordination for homeless people admitted to hospital.  There are now 11 UK hospitals with Pathway teams, and Perth is the first Australian hospital to establish something similar.

In a visit to Perth late 2017, Dr Nigel Hewett (OBE) from Pathway visited Perth to see the work of Homeless Healthcare in action.  He shares here an observation from a ward round with the RPH Homeless Team.

In his visit to Perth, Dr Jim O’Connell was impressed with the active research collaboration between UWA and Homeless Healthcare, and commended it as internationally leading the way!