​Hundreds of homeless people in Kent and Medway are now benefitting from essential foot and dental care, thanks to funding from NHS Charities Together’s Community Partnerships Programme.

The £323k of funding was awarded to Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT) to expand its Rough Sleeper Service to provide new podiatry and dental services, alongside the physical and mental health clinics already available.

Having provided more than 1,734 treatments for homeless people in West Kent, the Rough Sleeper Service will be rolled out in Medway and East Kent, where it is hoped the impact will be even greater.

Claire Knight, Complex Care Outreach Nurse from KCHFT, led the project in West Kent and will be helping to embed the service across Medway and east Kent.

Claire said, “The West Kent project has shown it’s an invaluable service for those who need it. Patients often spoke of difficulty accessing mainstream services due to fear, perceived stigma and discrimination. Some also felt their healthcare concerns wouldn’t be heard due to being homeless or labelled as having substance misuse problems.

“We have been able to show they are being heard, they are valued, and they deserve the right to healthcare.”

Clinics will be run by KCHFT, which will provide the complex care outreach nurses and podiatry. Dentaid is now providing a mobile dental van to run clinics in Maidstone, Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge, Medway, Folkestone, Canterbury and Dover.

The first clinic at the Dover Outreach Centre saw 10 patients, with eight receiving treatment and one tooth removed.

One service user said, “I feel so good as my teeth feel smooth and clean. I have had my teeth polished and checked over as I had pain. I have not been able to see a dentist for five years, and even that was just an emergency where they pulled just the root out.”

Another added: “The dentist was shocked about how much plaque I had, they have helped save my teeth, and I feel better for having had treatment. I now have a plan they will help me with.”

Ali Carruth, KCHFT’s executive director for health inequalities and prevention, said, “The Rough Sleeper project is a great example of services working together to treat people in our most vulnerable communities. Without these services, many people would have continued to become ill, some very seriously. By working together, we have been able to prevent illnesses, help people into their own homes and given many people a kick start to building a positive future.”

Jill Harding, from Dentaid, said, “We know many people experiencing homelessness face significant practical, emotional and physical barriers to accessing dental care. As a result, untreated tooth pain can have a severe impact on their health and wellbeing.

"By taking a mobile, charitable dental service to locations where our patients feel comfortable and supported, we can help to break down these barriers and give under-served communities the best possible chance to see a dentist. We offer our patients dental screening, pain-relieving treatments and oral health advice, but just as important is giving them the chance to talk to us about their dental concerns and engage them with dentistry.

“Not only does this help our patients out of dental pain, it can also help to restore their self-esteem if they feel more confident in their smile. We know dentistry can play a small but crucial part in helping our patients in their journey through homelessness and we’ve been delighted to work with KCHFT to offer this service to people experiencing homelessness in Kent.”

The West Kent initiative began in April 2019 and was funded by West Kent councils to provide a complex care outreach nurse.

The team works with other healthcare and specialist services such as Porchlight, local authority homeless prevention teams, addiction services, probation services, The Hep C Trust, local charities, day centres for the homeless and Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust’s Rough Sleeper Mental Health Team in west Kent and Medway.

Sue Graham, Porchlight's homelessness services area manager, said, “We work with a lot of people who are sleeping rough – this project is breaking down the many barriers they face, which can include difficulties travelling to dental surgeries, the obstacle of registering with a dentist and worries about how they will be perceived if they turn up for an appointment.

“Working alongside the NHS in this way is allowing our clients to get the treatment they urgently need in safe and familiar settings.”

The Medway Hospital Charity is responsible for managing NHS Charities Together’s Community Partnership Programme in Kent and Medway.

Donna Law, charity and fundraising manager for The Medway Hospital Charity, said, “We’re delighted the Community Partnerships funding from NHS Charities Together (NHSCT) has secured podiatry and dental services in West Kent, and will embed a new service in east Kent and Medway until summer 2024.

"We know so many rough sleepers, disproportionally affected by the covid pandemic, will now be able to access services that were unavailable to them and we would like to thank NHSCT for granting the opportunity to support this valuable work.”

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