Published Research Papers

Published Journal Articles

Accessing Antenatal Care When You are Rough Sleeping: Barriers and Enablers

Elsewhere in Perth, thousands of other women are meticulously planning their pregnancies or births, engaging in antenatal care with a provider of their choosing from early in their first trimester, and closely monitoring the trajectory of their baby’s development via a plethora of ‘what to expect when you are expecting’-type books, websites, apps, and social media blogs. At a broader societal and health system level, there is now heightened scientific and policy attention to the critical importance of the first 1,000 days of life, from the point of view of both child development and future adult health and wellbeing - Read Article

Dying Homeless in Australia: We Must Measure It Better

You can’t change what you don’t measure — so goes the saying. We frequently measure metrics such as the unemployment rate and road fatalities, which in turn, are used to drive government policy and budget decisions. However, there remains a vast gap in our knowledge base about dying homeless in Australia. And without concrete evidence, how can you drive and measure change? - Read Article

Deaths Among People Experiencing Homelessness: Each One, a Life

Deaths among people experiencing homelessness in Australia remain largely ‘invisible’ — these deaths do not appear in routinely reported national mortality and life expectancy statistics,1 and they don’t tend to make newspaper headlines nor obituaries. Yet each death is and was a human life - Read Article

Multimorbidity among People Experiencing Homelessness— Insights from Primary Care Data

Published in 2021 this article analyses the medical records of 2068 “active” patients registered Homeless Healthcare as of 31 December 2019. Overall, 67.8% of patients had at least one chronic physical health condition, 67.5% had at least one mental health condition, and 61.6% had at least one alcohol or other drug (AOD) use disorder. Nearly half (47.8%) had a dual diagnosis of mental health and AOD use issues, and over a third (38.1%) were tri-morbid (mental health, AOD and physical health condition). Three-quarters (74.9%) were multimorbid or had at least two long-term conditions (LTCs), and on average, each patient had 3.3 LTCs - Read Article

Tackling Health Disparities for People Who Are Homeless? Start with Social Determinants (2017).

Published in late 2017, this paper describes the raft of socially determined factors that contribute to the frequent hospital attendance of people experiencing homelessness. Three case histories of homeless patients seen by the Royal Perth Hospital Homeless Team (Western Australia) are presented. The cumulative healthcare costs for the three individuals over a 33 months period were substantial, but significant also is the potential to reduce hospital use when housing and tailored support are provided – View Article.

Homeless Health Care: Meeting the Challenges of Providing Primary Care

Stable housing together with tailored health care services are vital in addressing homelessness. In this paper, UWA’s Associate Professor Lisa Wood and founder and Medical Director of Homeless Healthcare Dr Andrew Davies outline key recommendations for tackling the poor health of the homeless who have a life expectancy of up to 30 years lower than the general population. – Read Article