Homelessness Prevention in Treatment of Substance Abuse and Mental Illness

Through Homelessness Prevention in Treatment of Substance Abuse and Mental Illness: Logic Models and Implementation of Eight American Projects, psychiatrist, psychologists, and social workers will discover the results of eight, three-year long development projects funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) designed to prevent homelessness in high- risk populations who have problems with alcoholism, drug abuse, and/or mental illness. Through this informative book, you will examine the theory or logic guiding each program, including an up-to-date review of the literature supporting each theory. You will also find a description of the implementation of the program as well as its history, the practical issues involved in delivering services, the pitfalls, lessons learned, and recommendations for the future so you can use the best ideas to implement in your own community and stop these individuals from reaching the streets.

Homelessness Prevention in Treatment of Substance Abuse and Mental Illness provides insight into how to deal with many common issues that you are faced with every day, such as matching clients to appropriate services, preventing relapse, case management, training in independent living skills and money management, acquiring and maintaining housing, and benefits and employment for your disadvantaged clients. Compelling and informative, this unique book provides you with many tips and suggestions on how you can help the disadvantaged in our population avoid the added trauma of becoming homeless, such as:

• examining a new modified therapeutic community (TC) intervention program for mothers recovering from substance abuse who live with their children so you can learn to treat the family as a whole and not just treat the person with a "problem"
• gaining insight into a new intervention program for families caring for another family member with serious mental illness or substance abuse disorders so you can address such issues as the importance of respite for the family and home visits for relationship building among the entire household
• discovering a new, independent living model which allows clients with serious mental illnesses to select their own apartments
• learning about a new program in Philadelphia that offers support services to clients with serious mental illnesses and substance use disorders and provides several levels of housing from emergency shelter to highly supportive permanent housing
• discovering a community counseling center in Chicago that operates a "bank" that helps mentally ill clients or those with substance use disorders develop skills to independently manage their financial affairs through the use of "vouchers" that can be redeemed for cash for the payment of monthly bills

Homelessness Prevention in Treatment of Substance Abuse and Mental Illness provides you with new insights into how you can help your clients overcome political, economic, and environmental barriers to treatment that can lead to homelessness. This essential book will help you improve your services to your clients as well as give you step-by-step guide to implement these new programs in your community.

Kendon J. Conrad, PhD, is Professor in Health Policy and Administration at the School of Public Health of the University of Illinois at Chicago and Associate Research Career Scientist of the Midwest Center for Health Services and Policy Research at Hines Hospital, Department of Veterans Affairs. He is the principal investigator on the representative payee project described in this volume and has published principally in the areas of substance abuse treatment, long term care, and evaluation research methodology.

Michael D. Matters, PhD, is Research Assistant Professor in Health Policy and Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a co-investigator on the representative payee project. He received his doctorate in sociology from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago specializing in the study of organizations and in linguistics in December of 1994. He has worked on studies of programs for substance abuse and mental illness.

Patricia Hanrahan, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Chicago, the Director of Clinical Program Evaluation for the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS), and a co-principal investigator on the representative payee project. Her research interests include evaluation research in social work, adult day care, and more recently, hospice care for dementia patients, supportive housing for severely mentally ill individuals, and the provision of a novel anti-psychotic drug, risperidone, through a retrospective analysis using the IDHS pharmacy database.

Daniel J. Luchins, MD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Chicago and Associate Director of Clinical Services at IDHS. He is a co-principal investigator on the representative payee project and has published principally in the areas of the significance of structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenics. He has also developed a strong interest in polydipsia and other repetitive behaviors in chronic schizophrenia. The more recent of his over 100 publications include examinations of rehospitalization rates, factors influencing rehospitalization rates, and the assessment of substance abuse or dependence among individuals with severe mental illness.