Rough Sleepers Mental Health Service (RSMHS)

• Referral information
• How long will we remain involved?
• How to refer?
• Inclusion criteria
• Exclusion criteria

Referral information

The Rough Sleepers Mental Health Service have different pathways for service users and other organisations to access the team for support. This includes offering:

• brief or one-off pieces of advice or support to other organisations or services working with service users experiencing homelessness or rough sleeping,
• extended support to organisations working with service users experiencing homelessness through the delivery of psychological formulations (involving the service user where feasible),
• direct work with service users to complete assessments of their mental health to support the identification of and signposting to relevant support.

How long will we remain involved?

The amount of time we work with someone varies depending on their individual needs. Following a direct assessment we may end our involvement as service users may transition into other appropriate services, alternatively we may work with the person to complete some brief or longer-term interventions to support them with their mental health and/or prepare them to engage with other appropriate services.

How to refer?

For referrals where a request is being made for extended support for organisations, or for direct work with a service user, then a referral form should be completed and sent to the Team inbox. Our team meets regularly to discuss the referrals which are made to the team. For all referrals we will attempt to obtain collateral information before deciding whether a direct assessment with the service user is appropriate. We do this to prevent reinforcing feelings rejection often experienced by those we work with by recognising earlier someone’s eligibility for our services support.

All other general enquiries can be sent via the Team inbox. This inbox in monitored during service hours and we aim to respond to all enquiries within five working days.

Prior to completing a referral, we recommend you review the below inclusion and exclusion criteria. If you are unsure whether someone you are working with would be appropriate for our service, we suggest you contact us via the team inbox and a practitioner can get back to you to arrange a time to discuss.

Inclusion criteria

• Over the age of 18.
• The person referred is either currently, or at immediate risk of rough sleeping in Leeds, including those who are temporarily accommodated in emergency hostels.
• Mainstream services (mental health, GP, and social care) struggle to engage with the individual to meet their mental health needs.
• For those being referred for the Direct Service User Pathway, they must have an established or suspected mental health need which necessitates direct specialist assessment.

Exclusion criteria

• The person requires an immediate or urgent response due to suspected mental health crisis. In the event of a mental health crisis, you should contact 111 option 2 for mental health crisis support or 999 in the event of immediate risk to harm or others.
• The person is actively engaging in assessment or treatment of their mental health with another secondary or specialist mental health services.
• The person’s primary need relates to the use of substances.
• For those being referred for the Direct Service User Pathway, the person referred poses a significant risk to others without established mitigations already being in place.