Exploring health and housing outcomes among homeless individuals presenting to an inner-Sydney hospital: a data linkage study

St Vincent's Homeless Health Service provides specialist health care to the inner-Sydney homeless population. The Community Outreach Medical Emergency Team (COMET) delivers primary health care clinics at drop-in services frequented by homeless people. Tierney House provides sub-acute care through short residential stays linked to outreach health care. This study extends previous research documenting the health needs of homeless individuals accessing the two St Vincent's services. Administrative data collected by COMET and Tierney House on all persons accessing COMET and Tierney House over a 1 year period was linked to St Vincent's emergency department (ED) presentations and hospital separations. A comparison group of patients presenting to ED or admitted to hospital during the same period was randomly selected using the identifier 'no fixed address'. The comparison sample was frequency matched to the COMET and Tierney House sample on age, sex and Indigenous status. This linked dataset allows for a number of research inquiries, for example, an examination of comorbid physical and mental health presentations. An additional linkage to the Specialist Homelessness Services Collection could also be explored which would allow analysis of contact with the homelessness system following discharge.

Introductory level of epidemiology required.