About us

The Homeless Health Service see and treat homeless patients who visit the Compass Centre on Jamaica Street, Stokes Croft. We also have outreach teams who actively go out into the community to seek homeless patients who may need our help.

The Compass Centre is run by St Mungo’s and provides access to the GP service, mental health support workers, a café run by homeless people, access to IT as well as shower facilities.

Patients can drop in for appointments with either a GP or a nurse every day.

Homeless Health’s daily clinics and drop-in service offers:

• general health advice and treatment
• support and advice re: mental health problems
• safe injecting advice
• minor injury care
• testing for sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy; all contraceptive methods available
• drugs/alcohol support and referral to other specialist services
• testing and counselling for blood borne viruses such as HIV/Hepatitis B & C
• opticians service
• referrals and liaison with other health and homeless services.

The Homeless Health Service also runs SMART (Supervised Methadone and Resettlement Team) Clinics. This is a service for homeless people who are opiate dependent and have a history of sleeping rough. We will offer a two year programme backed by counselling and support. The Homeless Health Service will be working with Second Step to provide Health Link workers. The Health Link team provides specialist advice and guidance for homeless people seeking health related services. With the aim of championing the needs of homeless people, the team gives sensitive support and promotes a client’s healthcare rights to help engagement and to tailor care to suit the individual.

Once a client has engaged with the service, Health Link assesses specific needs and can then liaise with outreach teams or refer to other health, housing and support agencies to ensure stability and continuity of care for recovery.

Outreach team

Although the health care needs are mainly delivered from the Compass Centre, the service has a number of outreach opportunities working with other agencies in Bristol.

Wet Clinics at the wild goose Café

Our GPs will provide a weekly “Wet Clinic” based in the Wild Goose Café in Stapleton Road, Easton.

The Wild Goose Café provides about 500 meals a day for people aged 18+ with addiction problems, homeless people, long term unemployed people and people with mental health problems.

The Wet Clinic offers access to a GP for people with alcohol addiction, enabling people to find help when still under the influence of alcohol. The clinic is supported by support workers from St Mungo’s so that people can access advice from support workers as well as from the GP.

One25 GP Clinic

The Homeless Health Service will be working with One25 who reach out to women trapped in, or vulnerable to, street sex work, supporting them to break free and build new lives away from violence, poverty and addiction. The multi agency outreach team also give emergency help in a crisis, for example when a woman has been attacked.

Drop-in surgeries at St Mungo’s and Bristol Drug Project

A nurse drop in surgery is provided at St Mungo’s, Longhills (Stokes Croft). This is an accommodation centre for single homeless people with complex needs, including ex-offenders, people with mental health or drug/alcohol issues. The Homeless Service works with Bristol Drug Project providing a nurse drop-in surgery and van outreach.