Behind the front door
Homelessness, mental health, substance use and trauma.
A half day on what lies behind the front door: homelessness and its scale, multiple disadvantage, mental health and the law, substance use, harm reduction and trauma-informed leadership.
- Level
- Explore
- Learning time
- 6 hours 30 minutes
- Where
- Homes and residents
- Price
- £129
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms
Certificate of Completion, or Certificate of Completion and Assessment with a short assessment
Overview and Outcomes.
Who It's For
Leaders and managers in homelessness, housing, mental health, substance use and voluntary sector services
Overview
Behind every figure on homelessness is a person. This first half of Every door the right door lays foundations with Corey Keyes's dual continua and the Welsh Adverse Childhood Experiences study, then the scale and shape of homelessness in Wales and England. Multiple disadvantage is reframed as complex systems rather than complex people, drawing on Hard Edges. It then turns to mental health and the no wrong door approach in Wales, mental health law from 1983 to 2025, and substance use, from NICE guideline NG58 to Dame Carol Black's review. Harm reduction and WEDINOS follow, closing with Herman, Siegel, Trauma-Informed Wales and Aberfan.
Aims
The ambition is to help leaders see multiple disadvantage as a system to change rather than people to fix, read homelessness figures honestly, lead harm reduction with confidence on contested ground, and make their services trauma-informed in practice, keeping the person in view throughout.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Explain the reframing from complex people to complex systems, and assess where your service sits on coordination and flexibility.
- Plan a good discharge for someone at risk of homelessness, drawing on section 117 aftercare and the homelessness duties on public bodies.
- Apply practical harm reduction steps in housing and hostels, and the Trauma-Informed Wales framework, to make your service safer.
What you'll develop
Across this Explore, you will develop the ability to:
- Describe the full spectrum of homelessness, from rough sleeping and temporary accommodation to hidden homelessness and people at risk, and explain why a home is where recovery starts.
- Interpret the headline figures on rough sleeping and temporary accommodation in Wales and England, including how each nation counts and why the figures are not like for like.
- Explain the two-way cycle between mental health and homelessness, and identify points in it where services can step in.
- Outline how mental health law has developed from the 1983 Act to the Mental Health Act 2025, and what the new Act sets out to change as its provisions commence.
- Explain co-occurring conditions and the principle in NICE guideline NG58 that no one should be excluded from one service because of the other condition.
- Explain why keeping people alive is the first outcome, and describe the five principles and four tools of harm reduction.
- Describe SAMHSA's four Rs and six principles and explain how each translates into what an organisation does rather than what it knows.
- Describe the four practice levels and five principles of the Trauma-Informed Wales framework and what makes it a societal rather than a single-service approach.
Built from 10 modules.
6 hours 30 minutes of learning.
- 01Foundations: Homelessness, Mental Health and Multiple DisadvantageHomelessness, Mental Health and Multiple Disadvantage40 min
- 02The Scale and Shape of Homelessness in Wales and EnglandHomelessness, Mental Health and Multiple Disadvantage40 min
- 03Multiple Disadvantage: Hard Edges and BeyondHomelessness, Mental Health and Multiple Disadvantage38 min
- 04Mental Health and HomelessnessHomelessness, Mental Health and Multiple Disadvantage39 min
- 05Mental Health Law and ServicesHomelessness, Mental Health and Multiple Disadvantage39 min
- 06Substance Use and Co-occurring ConditionsHomelessness, Mental Health and Multiple Disadvantage40 min
- 07Harm Reduction: Keeping People AliveHomelessness, Mental Health and Multiple Disadvantage40 min
- 08Foundations: Trauma, Adversity and LeadershipTrauma-Informed Leadership and Organisations37 min
- 09Trauma-Informed Approaches: Principles and FrameworksTrauma-Informed Leadership and Organisations37 min
- 10Trauma-Informed Wales at Organisational ScaleTrauma-Informed Leadership and Organisations38 min