Leaving the hospital if you’re homeless?

[Whatshallwedohere]

AIBU to wonder what on earth is going to happen with this …..

My brother has had an accident and seriously injured himself, he doesn’t have a permanent address and from what I know he moves from air bnb’s to hotels, not how I would choose to live but he’s a grown man. He’s in and out of work but after this he won’t physically able to work for the foreseeable future.

He is in hospital currently but I imagine they will want the bed back soon, what happens if someone is discharged with nowhere to go? The rest of us live hundreds of miles away and he lives a problematic life so we couldn’t house him anyway.

AIBU to think the local council will have some sort of duty of care to house him or am I dreaming? Does anyone have any insight or experience of this?

If he has no fixed abode to be discharged to and if this could affect his follow up care/ risk of infection etc then I would imagine there might be a referral to the hospital social worker to see if they can liaise with the local housing authority and other community based providers to see about an appropriate discharge plan. If he has complex needs it may be that he's treated as a vulnerable adult but it would very much depend on his individual circumstances and needs so hard to say for sure. Alternatively they may ask him to come in for follow up treatment at a walk in clinic or arrange for a home visit to the temporary accommodation he's been in by a nurse.

Very hard to say, as he is an adult with capacity, unless he is now very vulnerable due to his injuries?

I cant comment on all situations but the local hospital to where I am just patches up the various ailments of the homeless people and then discharges them. Usually these are injuries that can be sorted relatively as a one off event though so not sure about this case

It depends really.
If he has capacity/no mental illness/no disabilities then possibly not.
What is the injury?

You might find this guidance helpful OP (though it isn't legally binding it can be a good way to start the conversation with hospital staff)

Edited to add that as PP says it will also depend on his mental capacity e.g. if he refuses intervention and has the capacity to do so

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/discharging-people-at-risk-of-or-experiencing-homelessness/discharging-people-at-risk-of-or-experiencing-homelessness

Depends on the injury, will he need to go to rehab? They might be able to sort out some temporary emergency housing or he could go to a hostel- I’ve certainly discharged patients to their usual hostel. It depends on the injury and if he will be independent/self caring. Also, if he has capacity he has the right to self discharge or refuse any option offered to him.

I was in hospital with a woman and she was discharged to a hotel/B&B.

Are the hospital aware that he doesn't have an address? If he's given them the address of the latest AirBnB then they may not realise he's not got anywhere to go.

@Whatshallwedohere Hi OP. I deal with sort of thing at work. The hospital should have a referral process to the homeless team at the local council.

Assuming no needs that would meet Adult Social Care criteria, he could be discharged to a hostel or b&b. But I'll be honest, he's at high risk of street homelessness with his lifestyle and profile.

Depends where he is. Big hospitals have discharge coordinators that deal specifically with homeless patients and arrange housing (usually some king of hostel) Often patients stay on the ward although they are well enough to be discharged until they have somewhere to be discharged to.

Thank you all so much for your responses, the nurse said this will need to be discussed with the discharge team when ready for discharge but alluded to it not being any time soon which surprised me as I know hospitals are keen for beds.

My brother will leave with significant injuries which will take a very long time to recover from, it’s unclear whether he will recover completely at this point. I just hope they are able to offer some sort of accommodation, even a hostel in the short term.

@Whatshallwedohere
Sorry to hear that and hope that he improves. I haven’t in my experience as a ward nurse known a patient to be discharged without anywhere to go unless the patient themselves refuses to take the accommodation offered.

Can anyone in your family house him? Or would he not want this?

What address did he give when he was checked in?

Hopefully they can offer something.

in big hospitals the discharge team will often have a housing officer who can support with housing after discharge.if he will need ongoing care ect then that will also be arranged via the discharge team

Nothing, they'll make sure his phone number is up to date and that's that.

My BIL didn't even have a working phone number, he'd just returned from Europe, so he gave them ours and they were satisfied with that.

Talk to the hospital social work department and leave nothing out about his situation and the fact no relative can take him in. Give them the information even though they won't be able to discuss him with you without permission.

I'm not going to say this is a golden ticket to proper accommodation for him, but it is what you can do.

I work in this area and our trust has a discharge team that will support with ref to the local authority housing teams. Dependent on his needs and local housing levels he'll most likely get a hostel or hotel but should also get a housing case worker that wll support him into private rental or social housing.