With the recognition that large numbers of men and women receiving services in the mental health and addictions systems are the survivors of sexual and physical abuse, practitioners need to become informed about the dynamics and the aftermath of trauma.
This study compared two contemporary approaches to linking housing and mental health services. In the integrated housing program, case management and housing services were provided by teams within a single agency and were closely coordinated. In the parallel housing condition, case management services were provided by mobile assertive community treatment teams and housing by routine community-based landlords. Adults with severe mental illness who were at high risk for homelessness (n = 121; 72.7% schizophrenia spectrum) were assigned randomly to integrated or parallel housing services and followed for 18 months. Integrated housing services led to more days of stable housing and greater life satisfaction than parallel housing services, especially for male participants. Integrated housing services were also associated with greater reductions in psychiatric symptoms. Closer integration between clinical and housing services, and greater use of supervised living settings, led to more time in stable housing for participants in the integrated housing services condition and was associated with greater gains in several outcome domains.
This study examined the effects of integrating mental health, substance abuse, and housing interventions for homeless persons with co-occurring severe mental illness and substance use disorder. With the use of a quasi-experimental design, integrated treatment was compared with standard treatment for 217 homeless, dually diagnosed adults over an 18-month period. The integrated treatment group had fewer institutional days and more days in stable housing, made more progress toward recovery from substance abuse, and showed greater improvement of alcohol use disorders than the standard treatment group. Abuse of drugs other than alcohol (primarily cocaine) improved similarly for both groups. Secondary outcomes, such as psychiatric symptoms, functional status, and quality of life, also improved for both groups, with minimal group differences favoring integrated treatment.
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