Introduction
The Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) Collection (SHSC) commenced on 1 July 2011. Data are provided by over 1,700 government-funded agencies that deliver homelessness services to people in need of support. These data are based on interactions between clients and service providers and are collected at fixed points in time:
- at the start of a support period
- at the end of every month during a support period
- at the end of a support period.
SHS agencies provide these data to the AIHW on a monthly basis. For detailed information about the SHSC see Specialist Homelessness Services Collection.
The SHSC contains longitudinal data on people who receive support from SHS agencies. The SHSC can be linked to other national health and welfare services such as:
- National Death Index (NDI)
- Medicare Benefits Scheme data (MBS)
- Pharmaceutical Benefits scheme data (PBS)
- Alcohol and other drug treatment services national minimum dataset (AODTS NMDS)
- DSS Payment Demographic data set (DOMINO).
These data can be used to analyse combined service use patterns, selected vulnerabilities, client characteristics and health outcomes.
The articles in this report draw from multiple methodologies and linkages to highlight key findings from the support needs and outcomes of specialist homelessness services clients.