Grant: Project Grant

Homelessness has lifelong personal consequences and leads to important social and healthcare costs. Reasons leading up to homelessness are complex, including housing availability, poverty, mental and physical illness, and discrimination. The Canadian healthcare system struggles to offer accessible and equitable care for people experiencing homelessness. Research shows that the support received from peers (people with lived experience of health or social 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 build relationships between people experiencing homelessness, healthcare teams and communities. However, knowledge of how peers influence the prevention and care practices of healthcare teams is still limited. We seek to answer 3 main questions: 1) What are the prevention and care practices of peers in different contexts of homelessness?; 2) How do peers influence healthcare teams' practices?; 3) What are the main perceived outcomes of peer support on people at risk or experiencing homelessness, healthcare teams and local decision-makers? Our team of over 30 experts includes peers, clinicians, health and social scientists, and system leaders. Together, we will study 6 healthcare teams working with peers in the contexts of: Indigenous health, substance use, migrants, youth mental health, adult homelessness and chronic conditions. To achieve meaningful change in the healthcare system, we will communicate key learnings to policymakers, and support a learning community to foster mutual support among new and established teams working with peers. All phases of this participatory research will be conducted in partnership with peers, in order to find solutions "with" people rather than "for" them.