Grant: Project Grant - Priority Announcement: Patient-Oriented Research

Homelessness has lifelong personal consequences, and leads to important social and healthcare costs. Reasons leading up to homelessness are complex, including housing, poverty, health problems, mental illness, and discrimination. The Canadian healthcare system struggles to offer accessible, adapted, safe and equitable care for people experiencing homelessness. Research shows that the support received from peers (people with lived experience of homelessness and other challenges) can help to nurture relationships of trust, offer a model of hope, and accompany people in achieving their own goals. Peers largely achieve these beneficial actions through their ability to break down silos, and build bridges between people, care teams and communities. However, the knowledge on how peers can transform the prevention and care practices of healthcare teams to make them more accessible and adapted to the realities of homelessness is still limited. The overall goal of this project is to study how peers are transforming the practices of healthcare teams in homelessness prevention and care. Our team includes over 30 experts from 3 provinces, including peers and healthcare team members, health and social scientists, and system leaders. Together, we will study 6 healthcare teams with at least one peer to explore how peers work in different contexts of homelessness prevention and care, how they achieve transformational impact, and the promising ways to support this. These 6 teams work in Indigenous Health, Substance Use, Migrants, Youth Mental Health, Adult Homelessness and People with multiple chronic conditions. To achieve meaningful change in the healthcare system, we will communicate key learnings to policymakers, and create a learning community of peers to foster mutual support among new and established teams. All phases of the project will be conducted in partnership with peers, in order to find solutions "with" people rather than "for" them.