Covid-19

Guidance around the care of vulnerable people in London during the COVID-19 crisis. 

Our Covid-19 Symposium report
Summary and report of our Symposium, ‘The Voice of the Front Line During Covid-19.’

General guidance

Homeless health during COVID-19
Guidelines from The Homeless Health COVID-19 Incident Command Centre, including in depth guidance for hotels and hostels housing homeless people. A wide range of clinical protocols and advice documents.

Primary Care Respiratory Society guidance
A wide range of useful clinical guidance from the Primary Care Respiratory Society including the Primary Care Resource Pack, which is regularly updated.

Groundswell Covid-19 resources
A range of resources from Groundswell including guidance for rough sleepers and people living in hostels, with translations into a range of languages. Includes new guidance about the vaccine.

Information on COVID-19 for non-UK nationals
Guidance from the London Assembly for non-UK nationals, including information about health care charges during the COVID-19 crisis, and advice in a wide range of languages.

NICE guidance:
COVID-19 rapid guideline from NICE: managing symptoms (including at the end of life) in the community.

RCN guidance:
A wide range of guidance from the RCN around COVID-19 including infection prevention and control and clinical advice for specific sectors.

Specific health conditions and COVID-19

Homeless people have a higher than average prevalence of acute and chronic physical health needs, and may struggle to manage their conditions or access appropriate care at this time. 

Asthma and COVID-19
Advice from asthma UK for people with asthma during the COVID-19 crisis, including information about risk and available support.

Lung conditions and COVID-19
Advice from the British Lung Foundation for people with lung diseases, including COPD and Bronchiectasis.

Liver disease and liver transplant patients and COVID-19
Advice from the British Liver Trust for people with transplanted or diseased livers, including advice for people who may need to shield, and information around risk.

Cancer and COVID-19
General advice from Cancer Research UK for people with cancer, including advice around risk and shielding, and advice on maintaining a supply of medications.

Advice for people with specific cancers:
Bowel cancer
Breast cancer
Prostate cancer

Substance misuse and addictions and COVID-19

Homeless people in London may be struggling with addiction or withdrawal at this time. The COVID-19 crisis presents challenges around harm reduction and the maintenance of effective treatment programs for those who need them.

Advice for providers of drug and alcohol services 
Government guidance for commissioners and providers of services for people who use drugs or alcohol during the COVID-19 crisis.

COVID-19: Advice and support across the sector
Support and guidance for substance misuse professionals and their clients during the COVID-19 crisis.

Smoking cessation advice in relation to COVID-19
Information about how smoking can affect risk from COVID-19, and online resources to support people to cut down or stop smoking.

Antidote Home Care
Advice and support from London Friend, the LGBT charity, around substance misuse and chemsex during the Covid-19 crisis.

Release resources
Resources from Release around substance misuse during the COVID-19 crisis, including ‘essential journey’ cards which can be printed out or kept digitally to evidence journeys for medication or harm reduction equipment.

Sexual health and COVID-19

Covid-19 Tips and Tricks from Prepster
Advice for the PREP using community during the Covid-19 crisis, including how to access PREP.

Access to funding for staff and patients

Frontline Network Emergency Fund
Information about the Frontline Network Emergency Fund, which provides grants for people experiencing homelessness to help them secure accommodation, overcome barriers to support or obtain basics for essential needs. Currently only health professionals can apply on behalf of others.

RCN Foundation Support Fund
A support fund from the RCN foundation for nurses during the COVID-19 crisis, including access to hardship funds.

End of Life Care

Association for Palliative Medicine COVID-19 guidance
Up to date guidance for palliative care in secondary care settings.

Hospice UK COVID-19 guidance
A range of guidance from Hospice UK, including information about caring for somebody dying of COVID-19 at home.

Homeless palliative care toolkit
A toolkit for end of life care for homeless people, developed by researches from a range of institutions and organisations.

Miscellaneous

Advice on emergency measures relevant to homelessness during the COVID-19 crisis
Advice from Shelter Legal covering emergency COVID-19 measures relevant to homelessness, including for people fleeing domestic abuse and those with no recourse to public funds.

Monitoring the impact of COVID-19 on people experiencing homelessness
An ongoing project from Groundswell evaluating the impact of COVID-19 on people experiencing homelessness. Fortnightly briefings will be released through the linked page.

COVID-19: Ending the Interim Accommodation Duty and Mental Capacity
Document from Voices of Stoke covering decisions to end a duty to accommodate during the COVID crisis, and how they relate to mental capacity.

Resources for supporting Gypsy, Traveller and Boater communities
Resources from Friends, Families and Travellers including guidance around how to support traveller sites and unauthorised encampments and advice around eviction attempts and access to benefits.

Changes to Asylum & Resettlement policy
Advice from the Refugee Council on a range of topics including changes to decision making processes for asylums seekers.

Videos on how use the NHS in the following languages:
Arabic
Farsi
Kurdish
Sylheti
English

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