‘Our clients were invisible until our team came into being’: leading a service supporting homeless people

Sara Galvin’s tenacity in supporting and advocating for vulnerable people is admirable.

It is an ethos she has put into practice in running Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust’s (CWPT) mental health homeless pathway service, helping anyone who is homeless or at risk of eviction due to mental illness to access accommodation and therapy.

In 2021, she took on managing the service single-handedly and, last year, her work was recognised with a silver award at the Social Worker of the Year Awards, in the mental health social worker category.

Speaking to Community Care, Galvin talked about her triumphs and struggles leading the pathway, working in the sector as an autistic practitioner and what needs to be done to make the workplace more supportive for neurodivergent people.

What led you to pursue a career in social work?

I wanted to work in the social sector after my bachelor’s degree, but life took a different turn for me. I married at 21 and, at 23, became a stay-at-home mother at to my two children, until they went to primary school.

In 2011, shortly before getting divorced, I became a support worker at People in Action, a charity for people with a learning disability, I helped service users meet their personal care needs and achieve independence as much as possible by assisting them with laundry, preparing meals and taking prescribed medicines.

However, I wanted to do more impactful work.

I pursued a master’s degree in social work at Warwick University from 2012-14 and was fortunate, as the university funded half of the degree.

During my time as a social worker in the child protection service at Warwickshire County Council, I became drawn to aspects of mental health, when I had to work with parents with mental health complications or teenagers with similar issues.

It was a few years later, in 2019, that I made the big move to join the mental health team in the Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust.

It was a major decision, but the right move for me.

Can you tell me a bit about the homelessness pathway?

Photo provided by Sara Galvin

At the pathway, we accept referrals directly from homeless people, charity organisations, the council, community mental health teams, access hubs and other housing providers.

We support anyone who is homeless or at risk of eviction because of serious mental illness.

Once we get involved, our goal is to sort out accommodation and link people to the correct mental health service. We have helped people who have been sleeping rough get housing assessments and then get access to temporary accommodation.

Our clients were invisible until the pathway came into being. They are often ignored by society and do not have anyone, including family, to advocate for them.

What are the challenges you have faced while running the pathway?

A huge challenge has been managing the workload by myself when the pathway was launched, as I was the only post in the service at the time. I started the role in December 2021, and in July 2022, a support worker joined the team.

I manage multiple tasks in the pathway. For example, mental health teams email me asking about someone who has been moved around and whose location is not known.

I have links with the council, so am able to find out information about the person, but it takes time to contact the right people and sift through the information.

Staff from hostel accommodations may also contact me about someone needing a mental health assessment, but they may not know how to go about it because the clients are difficult to communicate with or sometimes hard to reach.

Because people who are homeless are difficult to reach and may take time to trust our services, I have to think of out-of-the-box measures to support people in distress.

What are some of the out-of-the-box measures you have taken?

I do not like saying no to problems or giving up.

When a challenge comes up, I need to find out more about it and figure out a solution.

I work very closely with our approved mental health professional hub to support homeless people.

As it is unrealistic to expect our clients to come to us, I am willing to go wherever they are. I have gone to ditches and the top of a hill to see if there are people there in need of mental health assessments and housing.

It is never easy, but I like the challenge, it makes my job interesting and keeps me on my toes.

How has the service benefited the people you work with?

There are a few stories that reflect how the service has helped people.

One is Wayne’s story. In September 2023, he was evicted from his house by his father and stayed on the streets for a few days. He then found temporary accommodation in a hostel at the Salvation Army.

On one of my visits there, I met Wayne downstairs, and he was very distressed and in a state of panic. He thought I was a staff member and started talking to me.

I helped him get admission into CWPT’s Caludon Centre, where he received treatment for psychosis for two months. He was eventually discharged and went back to the Salvation Army where they gave him a room to stay.

I was involved with Wayne throughout. I used to have conversations with him, when he was at Cauldon, about his treatment and stayed in touch with his psychiatrists to monitor his progress.

Another case was of a lady who was floridly psychotic and regularly begging in town. I helped her get admission to a mental health centre and now I am working towards getting her into supported accommodation.

What was your experience of working in social work with undiagnosed autism?

It was not a great experience, especially in children’s services.

I always hold onto things that I feel are right and fight for people who need support. Many people considered me as argumentative and strong willed as a result.

I used to have meltdowns because I was overstimulated and misunderstood.

So, working when I was undiagnosed was quite hard because there nothing for me to explain why I acted and felt the way I did.

How did the diagnosis change your experience in the workplace?

I can now mention it at work and people will be more understanding. This has lifted a bit of the pressure on me to wear a mask and always explain myself, which I did when I was undiagnosed.

It has helped build connections with clients who are neurodivergent. I do not always self-disclose, but where appropriate, it helps build rapport and enables us to understand each other better.

Raising a child with autism has also helped me be more compassionate and empathetic as a social worker.

The diagnosis made me want to raise awareness about it in the workplace. I feel I need to talk about my experiences so that others going through the same do not feel alone.

Now I can see that my autistic traits make me wholeheartedly fight for homeless people and ensure they are supported and not invisible.

What do you think could be done to make the workplace more supportive for neurodivergent people?

There needs to be better management, that’s key.

It’s not rocket science, but more needs to be done about treating people equitably and respecting that we all work in different ways.

Simply because I work in a way that is different from most people does not mean that is wrong. Understanding that takes time, but it is important to empathise with differences.

I am a new manager myself. That’s been a massive challenge to me. We work very well together, but my co-worker does not work in the same way as I do.

Being a manager has shown me that neurodivergent people can work in an amazing way. It needs to be embraced more in the workspace and our work styles should be understood and accepted.

But since social work is stressful, managers often forget to take time out for neurodivergent people to understand where they come from.

I hope we can create a more inclusive space for neurodivergent staff [in the pathway] and honour our differences.