Brussels, 20th November 2014 Françoise WEIL, Managing Director Plate-forme de Concertation pour la Santé Mentale en Région Bruxelles-Capitale

 Research:  Individual interviews and focus groups with actors from social and (mental) health sectors (emergencies, mental health care centers, (emergency) shelters, medical centers, federations, etc.)  Literature review  Visits in Belgium, France and Denmark  Forum to validate – invalidate research results  More than 2000 homeless people in Brussels (increasing number of women, alone or with children; increasing number of young people; etc.)  No access to housing: persons on waiting lists to access council houses or flats, lack of temporary accommodation, lack of sheltered living units and psychiatric nursing homes (high threshold)  Mental health reform (desinstitutionalisation), care and cure in their living environment if possible! Lack of mobile teams!  Mental Health Care Centers (waiting lists + no mobility; only 2% – coverage persons, mainly people with a demand, etc.)

 Needs for homeless people expressed by actors in these different institutions…  What about the silent homeless who never get to these institutions? No demands formulated by psychotic persons  Increasing psychosocial suffering  +/- 30% estimated prevalence of psychiatric diseases within homelessness population  Hardly ever reach psychiatric emergencies because no demand  May reach general emergencies of public hospitals, but not other hospitals  Under diagnosis

 Diversified housing options similar to Housing First + low threshold access to housing with multidisciplinary teams providing psychosocial support at home  Streetworkers who can establish a contact and guide them to regular health, social, etc. services  Encourage better networking within and between social and (mental) health sector  Providing means for supervision and emotional support for aid workers to prevent demotivation and burn-out  Increasing means for emergency units of public hospitals to hire social workers to help with administrative demands and social orientation to ensure continued care  Reforming Mental Health Care Centers to have a 24h access, some beds available for crisis situations and to provide outpatient support in the living environment of the person