Homeless Children and Young People

The objective of this research note is: To understand the healthcare needs of homeless children and young people and to identify examples of interventions that support homeless children and young people to access healthcare services. Accordingly, this research note provides information on the existing evidence-base on the following two research questions: 1. What are the healthcare needs (both met and unmet) of homeless children and young people in Europe and what are the barriers for this group to access healthcare services? 2. What type of interventions or practices facilitates homeless children and young people’s access to healthcare services (both preventative and curative), according to available evidence? a. Which kind of interventions have been shown to be effective (or not) in facilitating access to healthcare for homeless children and young people? b. What are the key issues to consider in the implementation of these interventions? This research note focuses on children, i.e. people under 18, while recognising that many interventions found in the literature cover an age group that includes both children and slightly older persons (up to the age of 25). This research note reviews evidence identified through a targeted search of literature published since 2010. We created a search protocol with a relevant search string, selected databases and defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. This can be found in Annex A. This search strategy resulted in a total number of 34 included studies in this review.