Integrated, interdisciplinary care is essential to address the multiple and complex needs of displaced people. Navigating fragmented systems of care is often impossible for these individuals, particularly those who are ill. HCH providers understand that health care and other basic needs are interrelated, and strive to address each client’s needs holistically through the use of multidisciplinary clinical teams. Integration of primary care with the treatment of mental illness and substance use disorders is a hallmark of HCH practice, and efforts to secure housing, entitlements, and jobs are intrinsic to this approach.
NHCHC Resources
- Integrated Care Quick Guide: Integrating Behavioral Health & Primary Care in the HCH Setting (2013) – Individuals who are homeless often have multiple chronic health conditions and face numerous barriers to care. Integrating behavioral health and primary care is one way to help improve health care delivery and access for this population. This quick guide is to assist Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) grantees with their efforts to integrate behavioral health and primary care services. The guide includes promising practices for integrating services that are currently being utilized by three different HCH grantees.
- Key Elements of Integrated Care for Persons Experiencing Homelessness (2011) – This document is presented as A Guide for HCH Providers, but its reach is much broader, with implications for the entire health care system. Claire Goyer, the author, has succinctly conveyed the genius of the multi- faced HCH “model” as it has developed over a quarter-century. She examines the Key Elements in light of the requirements of the Patient Centered Medical Home model that the Congress built into the 2010 national health care reform. As you will read, HCH shines as an exemplar of care integration.
- Managing Complex Comorbidities in Individuals Experiencing Homelessness (2012) – Managing patients who have multiple chronic conditions presents many challenges to providers and requires a high level of integrated care to be successful. This resource from the HCH Clinicians’ Network provides a brief summary of the literature on the impact of multiple chronic conditions on the U.S. and highlights practices from four HCH grantees to identify and treat patients with complex comorbidities.
- General Recommendations for the Care of Homeless Patients (2010) | Adapted Clinical Guidelines
- Integrating Primary & Behavioral Health Care for Homeless People (2006) | Healing Hands
- Integrated, Interdisciplinary Models of Care (1999) | Healing Hands
- Behavioral Health Integration (2019) | Preconference Institute at the National Health Care for the Homeless Conference