Health, happiness and your future: using a “men’s group” format to work with homeless men in London

The purpose of this paper is to describe an intervention with a group of homeless men from the Horn of Africa, service users of the Horn of Africa Health and Wellbeing Project in London. The group was conceived by the second author who noted the presence of significant psychosocial issues for her clients, but equally their reluctance to access mainstream mental health or social care services.

Designing the group and introducing it to the men involved threw up some challenges which are explored, and the impact of the group on participants is evaluated.

Overall both the participants and the facilitators evaluated the group positively and it appeared to have led to lasting change for some of the group members, and this is described. The authors argue that this sort of group may be a more acceptable way to work on psychosocial issues than something more directly focused on mental health intervention. The group protocol is outlined along with suggestions for future work in this area.

This intervention represents a creative alternative to more mainstream psychological interventions for homeless or exiled men.