Dublin Simon Community recorded almost 600 incidents of self-harm and suicidality among its service users over the last three years.

It also recorded a big jump in the number of young adults living in Dublin emergency accommodation during the same period.

The charity, which works to tackle homelessness in Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow, Meath, Louth, Cavan and Monaghan, highlighted these issues at its inaugural Homelessness & Health Research Symposium in Dublin on March 20.

According to the charity, the number of young adults, aged 18-24, residing in Dublin emergency accommodation jumped by 72% between March 2020 and January 2023, increasing from 828 to 1,423.

During this time, its counselling service – Sure Steps - recorded a trebling of referrals for young adults experiencing homelessness with mental health difficulties. The charity noted that this 18-24 age group had unique challenges that warranted an enhanced programme of care.

Responding to this, Dublin Simon Community developed a service-enhancement project to design and implement a mental health support programme tailored to young adults experiencing homelessness.

This 15-month project revealed a number of unique requirements to consider in the provision of services to young people experiencing homelessness with mental health issues. These included an age-appropriate counsellor, light activity offerings and the location of sessions in informal social settings.

According to young adult counsellor, Sinéad Casey, every young adult who experiences homelessness is unique and the development of mental health supports for this cohort “should be tailored to their specific needs”.

“We believe that young adults should have a say in how their supports are structured and implemented. We used a co-design model to create the programme and ensure it is accessible and appropriate for young people. This resulted in strong engagement and improved outcomes for young adults and boosted our effectiveness as a counselling service. We hope that the programme can become a permanent offering from Dublin Simon and that its benefits can be shared far and wide,” she explained.

Focusing on the issue of self-harm and suicidality, the research symposium heard that during the March 2020 to January 2023 period, there were 587 incidents reported and a “substantial” number of clients had more than one incident within a given year, “and often within a relatively short timeframe of weeks or months”.

Dublin Simon’s framework for suicide prevention and response has been developing over the years and is made up of a number of elements, including intervention by the Sure Steps counselling team and training for frontline staff.

Meanwhile, the research symposium also looked at factors affecting adherence to HIV medication. It heard about a research study which found that when homeless people were stigmatised, devalued or dismissed by healthcare professionals at the point of diagnosis, this had a negative impact on patients’ adherence to and engagement with treatment throughout their lives.

The study also identified the conditions of homelessness, including a lack of privacy, a lack of routine and a lack of agency, as well as exposure to other drug users in homeless settings, as having an adverse effect on adherence to HIV medication.

“The harmful and long-lasting impact of a negative diagnosis interaction warrants attention. Healthcare professionals need to ensure stigma and fear is not perpetuated at this point and may require specific communication training to guarantee this. There also needs to be an established support network in place to provide patients with the wraparound supports necessitated by the nature of such a diagnosis,” commented the study’s author and senior manager for clinical services at Dublin Simon Community, Eavanna Maloney.

The importance of research was emphasised by the research symposium’s keynote speaker, Dublin Simon Community CEO, Catherine Kenny, who said that it is key to helping the charity “make evidence-based decisions, create policies and to inform our practice”.

“When academic experts and experienced frontline staff collaborate, there is a huge potential for solutions and we are optimistic that the findings we are sharing here will play a part in bringing about real results for those individuals relying on our support,” she said.

For more information on Dublin Simon Community, click here.