Mental health services in Australia

Clients are considered to be at risk of homelessness if they are living in any of the following circumstances:

• Public or community housing (renter or rent free):
  • dwelling type is house/townhouse/flat and tenure type is renter or rent-free public housing, renter or rent-free-community housing.
• Private or other housing (renter, rent-free or owner):
  • dwelling type is house/townhouse/flat and tenure type is renter-private housing, life tenure scheme, owner―shared equity or rent/buy scheme, owner-being purchased/with mortgage, owner-fully owned, rent-free-private/other housing.
• Institutional settings:
  • dwelling  type is hospital, psychiatric hospital, disability support, rehabilitation, boarding school, adult correctional facility, youth/juvenile justice detention centre or immigration detention centre.

A specialist homelessness agency client is a person who receives a specialist homelessness service. A client can be of any age. Children are also clients if they receive a service from a specialist homelessness agency.

To be a client the person must directly receive a service and not just be a beneficiary of a service.

Children who present with an adult and receive a service are considered to be a client; children of a client or other household members who present but do not directly receive a service are not considered to be clients. 

SHS clients with a current mental health issue are identified as such if they have provided any of the following information: 

• they indicated at the beginning of a support period they were receiving services or assistance for their mental health issues, or had received them in the last 12 months; 
• their formal referral source to the specialist homelessness agency was a mental health service;
• they reported ‘mental health issues’ as a reason for seeking assistance;
• their dwelling type either a week before presenting to an agency, or when presenting to an agency, was a psychiatric hospital or unit;
• they had been in a psychiatric hospital or unit in the last 12 months; 
• at some stage during their support period, a need was identified for psychological services, psychiatric services or mental health services.

The client’s homeless status at the beginning and end of their support.

Clients are considered to be homeless if they are living in any of the following circumstances:

• No shelter or improvised dwelling:
  • includes where dwelling type is no dwelling/street/park/in the open, motor vehicle, improvised building/dwelling, caravan, cabin, boat or tent; or tenure type is renting or living rent-free in a caravan park.
• Short-term temporary accommodation:
  • dwelling type is boarding/rooming house, emergency accommodation, hotel/motel/bed and breakfast; or tenure type is renting or living rent-free in boarding/rooming house, renting or living rent-free in emergency accommodation or transitional housing.
• House, townhouse or flat (couch surfing or with no tenure):
  • tenure type is no tenure; or conditions of occupancy is couch surfing.

A support period is the period of time a client receives assistance from an agency.  A support period starts on the day the client first receives a service from an agency and ends when:

• the relationship between the client and the agency ends,
• the client has reached their maximum amount of support the agency can offer, or
• a client has not received any services from the agency for a whole calendar month and there is no ongoing relationship.