This webinar will be led by social worker and Approved Mental Health Professional Lizzie Furber, senior practitioner in the East London NHS Foundation Trust Rough Sleepers Mental Health Project (RAMHP).

Multiple Exclusion Homelessness (MEH) describes the overlapping and interlocking nature of homelessness and other forms of deep exclusion such as institutionalisation in prison, psychiatric hospital or local authority care, drug and alcohol use and street activity (e.g. begging, survival shop lifting and sex work). Safeguarding Adults Reviews relating to MEH and self-neglect repeatedly identify deficits in the approach of health, housing and social care services to meeting the needs of people experiencing MEH. Challenges in applying the Mental Capacity Act 2005, in balancing autonomy and protection and in responding to apparent service refusal are recurrent themes.

This seminar will consider the notion of ‘lifestyle choice’ in relation to people experiencing MEH and explore the practical application of the MCA, including assessing executive capacity. The aim is to increase practitioner confidence in working with a population group often deemed ‘too complex’.

The seminar is part of our Homelessness Series.