The QNI’s Opening Doors programme recently held a workshop in Birmingham for community nurses and allied health professionals. Opening Doors is a two-year programme to improve the health of homeless people and families.
The theme of this event was the specific challenges of mental health among the homeless population. A variety of speakers including nurses, occupational therapists, prison officers, community mental health teams and housing professionals contributed presentations. Attendees included specialist nurses, health visitors, students and public health workers, all of whom work in the area of homelessness and mental health.
The aim of the day was to inform attendees of best practice and also to give them ideas and practical tips to take back to their work to enable them to make changes in service provision.
The virtual workshop can be viewed on the QNI’s website, including speakers’ presentations and biographies.
“In this difficult financial climate it is a pleasure to listen to so many passionate people,” one delegate commented.
Andrea Davids, Project Manager of the Opening Doors programme, said: “Attendees were obviously concerned by the effects that cuts in funding would have on service provision in this area. However by bringing together a group of inspiring people we have tried to share ideas and look at how practitioners have innovated to overcome some of the very serious challenges in this field.”
The Opening Doors programme is an initiative of the Queen’s Nursing Institute and is running for two years until December 2012. More information is available on the QNI’s website.
