Who is St Bartholomew’s House?

St Bartholomew’s House [St Bart’s] assists people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness achieve positive life outcomes.

Our Vision is to eliminate homelessness.
Our Mission is to assist the homeless of today to rebuild their lives, and act to prevent the homelessness of tomorrow.

How will this project help you achieve your mission and vision?

St Bart’s recognises the harm caused by smoking and the links between smoking and disadvantage. Many of the people that access St Bart’s services come from various backgrounds with a history of trauma and disadvantage.

The majority of the people that come to St Bart’s are smokers. Smoking has big environmental, health and monetary risks so we have partnered with the Cancer Council WA to reduce these risks by promoting smoke-free environments, supporting people towards healthier smoking behaviours and assisting people on their journey towards reducing and quitting smoking. This all works towards our mission of assisting people experiencing homelessness and achieving positive life outcomes for the people at St Bart’s.

What difference will this project make for:

1. People accessing St Bart’s services?

This project has given people accessing St Bart’s services the opportunity to re-evaluate their smoking behaviours and the motivation to make a change. Residents are feeling more supported and able to move towards wanting to change. It has encouraged people to take that first step towards reducing or quitting smoking. The Healthy Lungs Project has also reduced the financial burden and given people the opportunity to try quitting products to aid their quitting attempts.

2. Staff at St Bart’s?

Since starting this project, staff have received training by the Cancer Council WA and feel more equipped to support people within St Bart’s to manage their smoking or move towards reducing and quitting smoking. Incidentally, some staff have also reconsidered their smoking behaviours and subsequently reduced or quit smoking. The environment in which staff are working has also become safer with more promotion of smoke-free areas and an increased awareness of the harms of secondhand smoke.

Greatest learnings and achievements?

Thanks to a generous donation, St Bart’s has been able to offer the Healthy Lungs Project, which has come out of the Make Smoking History Project. Through the Healthy Lungs Project, St Bart’s has offered free quitting products to people interested in reducing or quitting. As of December 2018, two people had quit and several others had reduced their smoking.

One of the success stories is Bernie, who was able to quit through the Healthy Lungs Project.

“The project offered me a chance to finally tackle the worst of my addictions - smoking”, Bernie says.

Through the project, Bernie has saved enough money to insure her car and purchase a laptop, with the intention to further her studies in the future.

Bernie says, “My new lease on life is a gift that has been given to me; another chance at a healthier life. I feel healthier in general and my breathing is quiet again”. Bernie is very thankful to everyone involved in this project, for without it she would not be smoke-free.

“It was a collaborative effort because I could not have done it by myself”. One of the greatest learnings from this project is that people want to and can quit smoking, and now, St Bart’s is in a much better position to support people to do.

PROJECT PLAN

Click on each of the priority areas below to find out what St Bart’s is achieving.