Integrated Care for People Who Access Substance Misuse and Homeless Services in Tower Hamlets

Key Findings:

• Individual services tend to work well, however services users can often feel supported by a service but let down by the system as a whole. A lot of good services don’t add up to a supportive system.
• Services are not particularly well integrated for service users, particularly those with co-morbidities, and most find the system quite difficult to navigate.
• Mental health is the weakest service in terms of access and availability. Many service users feel let down by the mental health support system.
• Housing is essential, it’s seen as the key issue to address prior to tackling other health and wellbeing concerns. However, hostels are largely not seen as good environments for recovery, and many people have struggled to find long term accommodation.
• Support systems are essential. Service users who have a person within the system they can trust and rely on to help navigate between wide-ranging services are more likely to have positive experiences. This may not necessarily be a key worker but someone who they trust, and they feel is knowledgeable and dependable.
• Lack of accurate information and advice about what services are available and how to access them leads to widespread confusion about how services work.