Background: People with histories of homelessness and serious mental illness experience profound health disparities. Housing First is an evidenced-based practice that is working to end homelessness for these individuals through a combination of permanent housing and community-based supports.Methods Those who emerge from the shadows of homelessness bring the disparities in the U.S. health care system into sharper focus. We describe the development and evaluation of a community of solution 1 that addresses the dual problems of chronic homelessness and poor health outcomes experienced by people with serious mental illness (SMI) through a partnership between an academic medical center and a Housing First program. Housing First, an innovative and effective housing and treatment model, 2 works to end homelessness for people with SMI by offering immediate access to permanent supportive housing and intensive community-based interdisciplinary supports. However, once housed, people continue to face numerous, often untreated chronic health conditions, suggesting that a systematic approach to population health improvement is needed. Primary care and patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) can play a significant role in helping to meet public health needs.3,4 This article offers an example of this process, in which an extended PCMH in the Thomas Jefferson University Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) and a local nonprofit Housing First agency, Pathways to Housing-PA (PTH-PA), have partnered successfully to better meet the individual and population health needs of formerly homeless This article was externally peer reviewed.

These results indicate that volunteering may be related to health outcomes because of the personality characteristics of volunteers, not the volunteering experience in and of itself. Future longitudinal studies are needed to further explore the relationship between personality, volunteering, and health.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition alternative model for personality disorders offers a two-part definition of personality pathology, separating personality functioning from traits. The Level of Personality Functioning Scale (LPFS) from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition alternative model for personality disorders encapsulates the personality functioning criterion, and several methods have been used to assess it. Previous interview rating methods have overlapped with an assessment of personality traits and symptoms, biasing the assessment of functioning, and recently developed self-report instruments rely on the participant’s awareness of their personality pathology. The purpose of the current analyses was to examine the reliability and validity of LPFS ratings based on open-ended, nondiagnostic interviews. The sample consisted of 162 community-dwelling, older adult participants from the St. Louis Personality and Aging Network. Undergraduate students rated video recordings of Life Story Interviews, using a 12-item version of the LPFS. One-way random, average measures intraclass correlation coefficient for the total LPFS was .80. A principal components analysis indicated that a single underlying dimension could characterize the LPFS. Component scores derived from this analysis demonstrated theoretically consistent associations with both normal-range and maladaptive personality traits. The component scores also contributed small but significant variance to the prediction of personality disorder symptoms, health, and functional outcomes over and above personality traits. These findings support the reliability and validity of the LPFS as assessed using Life Story Interviews and suggest that personality functioning ratings may have utility in predicting clinically relevant outcomes.

Findings suggest that OCPD's relationship with personality can be more precisely explained through its relationships with specific tendencies rather than general, higher-order traits.