Taking mental health care to the homeless

People experiencing homelessness in the Fremantle area will receive extra support with the creation of a mental health outreach officer role.

The new position is a first for a WA local government and has been joint funded by the State Government and the City of Fremantle and will be staffed by Homeless Healthcare.

A qualified mental health practitioner will operate in the community and engage with people experiencing homelessness.

The officer will provide outreach and mental health intervention twice a week for people with complex health needs that are experiencing chronic homelessness and rough sleeping.

The new service is in addition to existing homelessness support by the City of Fremantle including the City’s award-winning Library Connect service, community safety officer engagements, and the 20 Lives 20 Homes program that provides wrap-around support and sustainable housing for 27 people who had lived rough in Fremantle for an average of seven years. It is a partnership between state and local government, the private sector and community service providers.

Fremantle Mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge said the new mental health outreach officer would help fill an important gap in service delivery.

“Fremantle is a caring and compassionate community and we reach out to people when they need help,” Mayor Fitzhardinge said.

“This new position puts an officer in the community to proactively help those people experiencing homelessness and who have complex health needs that require qualified support.

“Fremantle has a long proud history of working with service providers to help vulnerable members of our community.

“Thanks to funding from the State Government through the Local Government Partnership Fund for Homelessness, which the City has matched, we can expand service delivery and hopefully make real changes in someone’s life with this new position.”

The City of Fremantle has supported several homelessness initiatives in Fremantle including the My Home project in North Fremantle, which provides accommodation for older women.

The City’s Tenancy Advocacy service at the Fremantle Community Legal Centre also assists hundreds of people each year who are at risk of becoming homeless.

The City of Fremantle also produces a Community Support Map, which shows where all the relevant services such as medical, food relief, accommodation services are in the CBD area, contact numbers and times of all services.