The role of assertive outreach in ending 'rough sleeping'
This study examines ‘assertive outreach’ as a recent and developing, policy-driven approach to ending homelessness for people sleeping rough in Australia. It is concerned with how assertive outreach has been conceptualised and implemented into practice in Australia and the extent to which it is achieving its policy intent. The study is essentially a formative review and aims to elicit the perspectives and experiences of policy-makers, service providers and service users within diverse contextual environments, drawing on three Australian case studies.
In this issue we carry a number of convergent papers on Theory and Methods that will contribute to the debate about “fit for purpose” academic support for practice. From the United States, Dr Roux provides a comprehensive glossary of terms for the increasingly important multilevel analysis, while Wardle and colleagues explore the use of a home affluence scale as an alternative means of assessing socioeconomic status in adolescence. ::: ::: See pages 588, 595 ::: ::: From Manchester come two complementary papers that propose the use of impact numbers in health policy decisions and in measuring the effects of interventions on population health, and McCarthy …