National homelessness charity Crisis has partnered with Rural Services Partnership Member, Community Heartbeat Trust (CHT), one of the UK’s leading resuscitation charities, to provide Crisis’ Skylight centres with defibrillators.

The new defibrillators will provide potentially life-saving support in case of an emergency at Crisis’ nine Skylights across Britain, which support people at risk of or experiencing homelessness with one-to-one support, training, and wellbeing services. Alongside providing the defibrillators, Community Heartbeat Trust will provide bespoke training to Crisis staff.

Community Heartbeat Trust originally recommissioned telephone kiosks for defibrillators, now with around 1,000 sites in England. CHT also focus on providing defibrillators in areas more in need or where people are more at risk of suffering 'out of hospital cardiac arrests’. To date, CHT have placed around 9,000 community defibrillators, backed by governance, sustainability and resilience programmes.

People experiencing homelessness have far worse health outcomes than the general population, in part due to the physical toll of homelessness, as well as the challenges and barriers in accessing healthcare. People experiencing homelessness are six times more likely to have heart disease and are more likely to die than people with secure housing. In fact, health inequalities are so stark that the mean age at death is just 45.4 years for men and 43.2 years for women experiencing homelessness, respectively.

People in the most deprived areas are twice as likely to suffer an ‘out of hospital cardiac arrest’ compared to those from the least deprived areas, highlighting the urgent need to tackle both the ongoing homelessness crisis and the severe health inequalities that homelessness leads to.

Crisis has seen a stark increase in demand for its services, with the number of people approaching the charity for support rising by 25% in just one year. The Westminster government has made positive announcements on housing and homelessness in recent weeks, including confirming its plan to ban Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, and proposals to tackle the shortage of affordable and social housing, but further action is needed, Crisis says.

The charity is calling on the government to establish a unit for ending homelessness that would be backed by the Prime Minister and sit at the heart of the government. This would ensure a coordinated, strategic approach to deliver the change needed to build a future free from homelessness, which recognises the important role that our health services have in preventing and ending homelessness.

Andrew Burnip, Director of Operations at Crisis, said: 

“We’re really pleased to be partnering with Community Heartbeat Trust to ensure all of our Skylight centres are provided with new defibrillators.

“People experiencing homelessness face shocking health inequalities and are at greater risk of cardiac arrest. By having these potentially life-saving pieces of kit in all of our Skylights, we will ensure people receive the best possible treatment in an emergency, should they ever need it.

“Far too many people’s lives are being endangered, and sadly cut short, because they do not have a safe and secure place to call home. We know housing is a fundamental building block of health, and so access to good quality, affordable housing is vital to ending homelessness and the health inequalities that arise from it.”

Martin Fagan, National Secretary at Community Heartbeat Trust, said: 

“Currently, people who are in some way socially deprived have a more than double chance of suffering a cardiac arrest. So, until this figure comes down, it’s vitally important that we’re able to provide defibrillators in areas where people might need them most.

“Community Heartbeat Trust is one of the UK’s leading resuscitation charities, and we’re delighted to be partnering with Crisis. For many years we have supported the provision of defibrillators into areas of social need and homelessness, and working with Crisis will allow more work in this important area.”