GOALS
The
goals of the project were to
1.
generate a snapshot of the long-staying population in HPD facilities,
2.
assess their housing and service needs, and according to those assessed needs,
3.
make recommendations for helping individuals in the population move to permanent
housing.
METHODS
Under
the direction of Dr. Judith Samuels, CSIPMH developed a comprehensive interview
protocol to be administered to long-staying HPD shelter residents. The protocol
included screens for mental health (e.g. psychoticism, depression, trauma,
etc.) physical health, access to health services, work histories, housing
histories, histories of collecting social benefits and family status. The
interview protocol was administered to a random, stratified sample of 100
HPD residents by interviewers at CUCS. They were recorded directly on laptop
computers and data was automatically dispatched to a database on the CSIPMH
server for analysis. In addition, focus groups were held with HPD shelter
staff to determine the level of services already available in the shelters
and the processes and procedures that may contribute to long staying among
the HPD sheltered population.
FINDINGS AND RESULTS
The
final report, which indicated that both individual health and mental health
problems and procedures in place at HPD contributed to long-staying among
the sheltered population, was submitted to DOHMH. The report included raw
population statistics, an analysis of population statistics, an assessment
of services currently being provided and a review of relevant literature on
evidence-based practices that have been shown to improve housing, mental health
and substance abuse outcomes for the population. The final report also included
recommendations for training of shelter staff and other workers who are engaged
are or will be engaged in providing outreach and placement services to the
HPD emergency shelter residents.
