Health and wellbeing

The average age of death for a homeless person is 44, while the overall average in the UK is 81. Adverse weather conditions, physical violence and unsanitary conditions are issues that can affect rough sleepers, and the same is true for people in temporary accommodation.

Serious mental health issues such as schizophrenia, bipolar and PTSD are far more common amongst homeless people, and suicide rates are nine times higher than they are for the general population. There is a very real need for effective health and wellbeing support specifically for homeless people.

As such, health and wellbeing is an important aspect of our work at Crisis, as without these basic needs being met it is very difficult for someone to access employment and housing. Across our 11 Skylight centres we work to signpost people to the health services they need, run a range of homeless specific health check-ins as well as delivering mental health and wellbeing activities such as counselling, yoga, mindfulness, exercise classes and more.

If you are interested in supporting our health and wellbeing projects at Crisis, please get in touch with the philanthropy team.