Box 6
Example of Program for Homeless Adults with Serious Mental Illness

• Program: ACCESS—Access To Community Care And Effective Services And Supports
  
• Goal: To demonstrate that the most vulnerable Americans homeless people with serious mental illness can be served through fresh approaches that bring together five distinct service sectors: mental health, drug and alcohol, housing, benefits and entitlements, and medical treatment.
  
• Features: Outreach, often by formerly homeless people in recovery, to bring services to where homeless people are: on the street, in missions, soup kitchens, shelters, and drop-in centers. Provides them with intensive case management through the highly regarded Assertive Community Treatment. Permits each community, with stakeholder input, to develop its own innovative ways to coordinate services.
  
• Outcomes: Over 5 years, the pooled findings from more than 7,000 homeless people reveal significant improvements in housing, income, and quality of life, and significant reductions in symptoms and substance use (Randolph et al., 2002).
  
• Biggest Challenge: To coordinate services across five independent service sectors and to recognize that homeless people do not readily come to traditional settings for services.
  
• How Other Organizations Can Adopt: Develop innovative ways to deliver services and coordinate existing services for homeless people with mental illness.
  
• Contact Point: Dr. Frances Randolph, SAMHSA
  
• Sites: 18 communities in nine states

Back to Fragmentation and Gaps in Care—for Adults with Serious Mental Illness