A new Government mental health strategy is currently under review, updating the10-year-old National Service Framework for mental health. This provides an ideal opportunity to influence and change Government policy so that mental health services are better able to meet the needs of rough sleepers and other homeless people.
The mental health of rough sleepers has been a crucial issue since we began in 1969. We are now in our 40th year and campaigning for the most excluded individuals in our society, rough sleepers with mental health problems, is as important as ever. We have piloted various programmes and developed various services that are really effective for many people with complex mental disorders, and we want to see these programmes become a key part of the services available to homeless people.
We have also called on the Government to adopt a target of there being nobody with a mental illness sleeping rough by 2012, which they haven't included in their new rough sleeper strategy.