Housing First - Provincie West-Vlaanderen

the emergency facilities in a hospital. The promotionof housing stability may also improve mental health,help stabilize drug and alcohol consumption andreduce contact with the criminal justice system inmuch the same way as for PHF services.Risk ManagementThere are a number of risk management issuesthat are present when supporting vulnerable peoplewith complex needs in the community. These issuescentre on the potential that someone might overdose,commit harm to themselves or to others or becomeseriously ill and not be able to summon assistance.Some HFL services will seek to manage theserisks through the assessment process, not allowinghomeless people who are judged to represent a riskthat cannot be properly monitored or managed byan HFL service.In some cases, HFL services supporting people withdifferent levels of need will provide relatively moresupport to people judged to represent a higher riskand relatively less support to those who are judgedto be low risk. The mobile support workers will alsomaintain contact and check on the well-being ofpeople using the service on a regular basis. A wellrun HFL service should use service brokerage toensure that were risks are present the homeless orpotentially homeless person concerned has specificsupport in place. For example, if someone has risksassociated with severe mental illness, HFL workersshould ensure that person is being monitored andcared for by appropriate psychiatric services. Thetechniques used to manage risk in HFL services canbe summarised as:❱❱Using assessment processes to ensure thatindividuals or households who represent a riskthat is difficult to manage are referred to moreappropriate services.❱❱Using service brokerage to ensure that, wererisks linked to health or support needs arepresent, appropriate external services are inplace to monitor and manage those risks.Summary of the HFL servicemodelThe HFL service model can be summarised asfollows:❱❱HFL is delivered by using ordinary private rentedor social housing and a team of mobile supportworkers.❱❱HFL provides housing with security of tenureimmediately or as soon as possible to a homelessperson.❱❱HFL may be used to help prevent homelessnesswhere an individual or household who has neverbeen homeless is assessed as being at risk ofhomelessness.❱❱HFL provides low-level mobile support servicesdesigned to help promote housing stability.❱❱HFL uses service brokerage to arrange accessto psychiatric, drug and alcohol services andmedical services where these are required andmay also use service brokerage to arrangeaccess to education, training and other serviceswhere these are needed.❱❱HFL services do not directly provide medical,psychiatric or drug and alcohol services.❱❱HFL can support chronically homeless people butmay also be used for other groups of homelesspeople, including homeless people with lowersupport needs. The other groups that mightbe targeted by HFL services can include younghomeless people and homeless families.❱ ❱ HFL services give considerable choice andcontrol to homeless people as part of followinga harm reduction model. If homeless people donot use the medical and support services whichcan be arranged, or choose to continue drinkingalcohol and using drugs, this does not place theirhousing under threat.❱❱Monitoring of the well-being of service usersthrough contacts and visits by mobile supportworkers.38