July 15 – 16, 2013 | Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago
Jointly sponsored by Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and the National Health Care for the Homeless Council
Join colleagues from across the country for two full days of professional development at the National Health Care for the Homeless Council’s Midwest Health & Housing Training, July 15 – 16, 2013, in Chicago. Register today for this exciting training that also offers networking opportunities for providers of health care and shelter services to special populations throughout Illinois and the rest of Region V.
Training Program | Attendee List
Plenary Sessions
Monday, July 15
Innovative Contexts: Community Health Workers and Health Care for the Homeless
This special presentation will feature an overview of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) Cooperative Agreement awarded to the National Health Care for the Homeless Council in June 2012. Darlene Jenkins will discuss the National HCH Council’s current collaboration with 12 health center grantees and 16 newly hired and trained community health workers (CHWs) to connect unstably housed individuals who are high users of the emergency department for non-emergent care into primary care and other health services.
Presenters: Karen Batia, PhD; Executive Director, Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights; Chicago; John Lozier, MSSW; Executive Director, National Health Care for the Homeless Council; Nashville, Tennessee; Darlene Jenkins, DrPH; Director of Research and Evaluation, National Health Care for the Homeless Council; Nashville, Tennessee
Location: Buchanan Chapel
Tuesday, July 16
Policy and Practice Trends Impacting Supportive Housing: Understanding the Olmstead Decision and the HEARTH Act
Supportive housing is an evidenced-based practice that helps increase stability and health outcomes while reducing public costs and encounters with institutional settings. Supportive housing, particularly when it is targeted to people with disabilities, is facing new opportunities for growth in both scale and models. At the same time, service and housing providers must refresh their knowledge of the Fair Housing Act and other requirements to provide reasonable accommodations. Both the Olmstead Decision and the HEARTH Act aim to provide more integrated community-based housing options for people with disabilities to end inappropriate housing either through homelessness or institutional care. This plenary session will provide an overview of Olmstead and Illinois-specific consent decrees as well as new implications for homeless services and housing providers under HEARTH.
Presenters: Bechara Choucair, MD; Commissioner, Department of Public Health; Chicago; Betsy Benito, AM; Director, Corporation for Supportive Housing; Chicago; Jamie Ewing, MPP; Program Manager, Corporation for Supportive Housing; Chicago
Location: Buchanan Chapel
Workshop Descriptions
Monday, July 15
9:30 – 11 a.m.
Introduction to Motivational Interviewing
Motivational interviewing is a client-centered method used to enhance motivation for change and resolve ambivalence. This workshop will introduce participants to the evidence-based practice of motivational interviewing and explore how motivational interviewing strategies can be used to guide relationship building and enhance clinical practice. Training participants will learn how motivational interviewing can be used to engage consumers in services and assess readiness, willingness, and ability for change. Special emphasis will be placed on linking motivational strategies to the stages of change and harm reduction principles.
Presenter: Valery M. Shuman, ATR-BC, LCPC; Associate Director, Midwest Harm Reduction Institute; Chicago
Location: Room 4G
The Nuts and Bolts of Health Reform: An Overview of Key Components Important to the HCH Community
The health reform law creates both opportunities and challenges for health centers. This workshop will discuss the national goals that have been set, those components of the law that will affect HCH operations and consumers, and the changes that should be implemented to make the most of funding opportunities and systems changes. The discussion will include advocacy strategies you can adopt to help project and community decision-making be more responsive to the health needs of individuals experiencing homelessness.
Presenters: Barbara DiPietro, PhD; Director of Policy, National Health Care for the Homeless Council; Baltimore; Nadeen Israel, Policy Associate, Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights; Chicago
Location: Room 4D
THRIVE: Self-Care
As helping professionals, we are at risk of experiencing issues that mirror those of the traumatized clients we serve. Research demonstrates the dangerous impact on physical and emotional health when exposure to trauma is combined with a stressful work environment. Knowledge is the best defense against burnout, vicarious trauma, and compassion fatigue. This workshop goes further than other self-care trainings by addressing the critical elements of health to enhance productivity and quality of work. Utilizing research in neurobiology, psychology, and business, this training provides skills for those in direct care to be more effective and efficient at work, allowing for the highest level of services possible.
Presenter: Matt Bennett, MBA, MA; Partner, Diverse Management Solutions; Denver
Location: Room 4E
1 – 2:30 p.m.
Spare Some Social Change? Integrating Service and Advocacy to Prevent and End Homelessness
Health care for the homeless staff and consumers possess significant experience with the successes and failures of the homeless services system. This expertise is invaluable in the struggle to improve the public policies that can ultimately prevent and end homelessness. This workshop will explain the connection between public policy and homelessness and will explore strategies to integrate direct service and policy advocacy at the project level. Overcoming barriers to policy advocacy, specific action steps to encourage the integration of service and advocacy, and strategies for successful advocacy campaigns will all be discussed. Examples of successful advocacy efforts will be provided, including preparing staff and consumers to provide testimony, organizing mass action, and the importance of broad participation in advocacy.
Presenter: Dan Rabbitt, MSW; Health Policy Organizer, National Health Care for the Homeless Council; Baltimore
Location: Room 4D
Health Care and Housing
Considering opportunities created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) and the Center for Housing and Health (CHH) are structuring permanent supportive housing programs to be integrated into the ACA health homes. Through collaboration with Illinois’s Medicaid office, AFC and CHH are accessing health information for program participants. Analysis of service usage patterns, health conditions, and overall spending provide valuable information on enhancing patient-centered care. Informed by this data, projects are being developed with innovative strategies to assimilate housing case managers into a care coordination teams in ACA health homes. Teaching techniques will include panel presentations. Understanding permanent supportive housing programs would be beneficial for attendees.
Presenters: Arturo Bendixen, MSW; Vice President of Housing Partnerships, AIDS Foundation; Executive Director, Center for Housing and Health; Chicago; Peter Toepfer, BA; Housing Manager, AIDS Foundation; Chicago
Location: Room 4E
Trauma-Informed Care: Considerations for Practice and Organizational Change in Community Settings
Along with the long-term therapeutic benefits patients receive when providers adopt a trauma-informed approach to care, enhanced outcomes can also be observed in the treatment of acute conditions for participants with barriers to maintaining consistent engagement or who are forced to navigate high-risk environments. This session will explore the impact of unidentified trauma histories on health outcomes, including symptom exacerbation, common misdiagnoses, and obstructions to the participant-provider relationship. Clinical practices and organizational restructuring from a trauma-informed perspective will be explored with considerations for improving services at all levels.
Presenter: David Kemp, MS, MA, CADC; Training and Technical Assistance Manager, Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights; Chicago
Location: Room 4F
3 – 4:30 p.m.
Integrating Sexual Health as a Vital Sign for Improved Patient Health and Patient Engagement, Part One
Learning about the sexual health and behavior of all adolescent and adult patients reflects a commitment to both patient-centered care and community health. By routinely asking sexual health questions as a standard of care, we reduce stigma and concerns about sensitivity for providers, patients, and the broader community. By routinely asking sexual health questions as part of a patient’s comprehensive history, the care team is prepared to engage the patient in a discussion about sexual health and behaviors, gender identity, and sexual orientation; collect data and information to guide clinical care decisions and patient goals; and coordinate the patient’s needs for prevention and treatment services. A routine sexual health history provides the opportunity to talk with patients about diseases such as HIV, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and viral hepatitis, diseases that can go unnoticed for long periods of time until they lead to more serious illness. Without treatment, they can also spread to sexual partners and increase disease in the community. As a key primary care provider in the United States, health centers play a critical role in the national response to the HIV, hepatitis C, and STD epidemics and in improving the lives of impacted individuals.
This session introduces sexual health as a framework for primary care and public health partnerships and addressing HIV, Hepatitis C, and STDs in the primary care setting.
Presenters: Harvey J. Makadon, MD; Director, National LGBT Health Education Center, Fenway Institute; Boston; Evette Patterson, BSN; Director of Clinical Services, Piedmont Health Services; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Mildred Williamson, PhD, MSW; HIV/AIDS Section Chief, Illinois Department of Public Health; Chicago
Location: Room 4G
Leadership Training
This presentation is designed to give leaders the skills and knowledge to propel their agencies, systems, or programs toward excellence. This workshop provides a practical model designed to enhance staff health while maximizing clinical and organizational outcomes. Learners will leave this presentation with a new paradigm of leadership along with a set of skills to implement in supervision of staff and management of programs. Whether you are an aspiring or experienced leader, you’ll see your role and work in a whole new light.
Presenter: Matt Bennett, MBA, MA; Partner, Diverse Management Solutions; Denver
Location: Room 4D
Outreach and Enrollment
The Affordable Care Act presents new tools and opportunities for engaging with the most vulnerable and disconnected members of our communities. By establishing a relationship with health care and social service providers, the ACA can help with getting a person’s foot in the door. However, these resources will be underutilized if we do not have outreach workers and health care professionals dedicated to going into the streets, shelters, and other service locations to find, engage, and enroll people into programs. This workshop will detail the efforts of outreach workers attempting to link people experiencing homelessness with medical insurance, health care options, and ongoing community support.
Presenters: James Kowalsky, BA; PATH Outreach Worker & Mental Health Professional, Heartland Health Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights; Chicago; Wanda Groover, Homeless Outreach Case Manager, Charles Drew Health Center; President, SourceNet; Omaha, Nebraska
Location: Room 4E
Partnering with Patients Who Use Substances to Increase Medication Adherence for Chronic Health Conditions
Often there is a crisis of trust between health care provider and active substance using patients related to long term medication regimes for chronic conditions, such as HIV, hepatitis C, diabetes, or chronic pain. This workshop is designed to examine the dynamics of this relationship, discuss strategies for identifying areas of overlapping patient-provider priority, and provide insight by exploring both myths about health care and describing substance use practices.
Presenter: Maya Doe-Simkins, MPH; Training and Technical Assistance Manager, Midwest Harm Reduction Institute; Chicago
Location: Room 4F
Tuesday, July 16
10 – 11:30 a.m.
Integrating Sexual Health as a Vital Sign for Improved Patient Health and Patient Engagement, Part Two
Learning about the sexual health and behavior of all adolescent and adult patients reflects a commitment to both patient-centered care and community health. By routinely asking sexual health questions as a standard of care, we reduce stigma and concerns about sensitivity for providers, patients, and the broader community. By routinely asking sexual health questions as part of a patient’s comprehensive history, the care team is prepared to engage the patient in a discussion about sexual health and behaviors, gender identity, and sexual orientation; collect data and information to guide clinical care decisions and patient goals; and coordinate the patient’s needs for prevention and treatment services. A routine sexual health history provides the opportunity to talk with patients about diseases such as HIV, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and viral hepatitis, diseases that can go unnoticed for long periods of time until they lead to more serious illness. Without treatment, they can also spread to sexual partners and increase disease in the community. As a key primary care provider in the United States, health centers play a critical role in the national response to the HIV, hepatitis C, and STD epidemics and in improving the lives of impacted individuals.
This session introduces taking a routine history of sexual health as a crucial tool for engaging patients in a discussion about sexual health and behaviors, gender identity, and sexual orientation for improved patient care.
Presenters: Harvey J. Makadon, MD; Director, National LGBT Health Education Center, Fenway Institute; Boston; Evette Patterson, BSN; Director of Clinical Services, Piedmont Health Services; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Mildred Williamson, PhD, MSW; HIV/AIDS Section Chief, Illinois Department of Public Health; Chicago
Location: Room 4G
Consumer Skill-Building: Strategies for Advancement
The National Consumer Advisory Board offers this workshop to develop job and life skills through participation in NCAB and National Health Care for the Homeless Council activities as well as through work on local consumer advisory boards. Examples of these activities include the basics of survey research, presentation development and delivery, meeting organization, and strategic storytelling. Presenters will offer these ideas and open the workshop for dialogue on other skills and opportunities for personal and professional advancement.
Presenter: Brian Zralek, MSSW; Consumer Advocate, National Health Care for the Homeless Council; Nashville, Tennessee; Rodney Dawkins, Consumer Advisory Board Member, Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights; Co-Chair, National Consumer Advisory Board; Chicago
Location: Room 4D
Harm Reduction for Families
Harm reduction is a philosophy and set of interventions that aim to reduce the negative consequences of risky behaviors. Harm reduction incorporates a spectrum of strategies from safer use to managed use to abstinence. Using harm reduction strategies, staff are better able to engage participants in services, to help them identify their needs, and to shape and work towards goals that are attainable and individually defined. This workshop will provide an overview of the rationale for using a harm reduction approach when working with families and strategies of successful implementation of the harm reduction philosophy with families.
Presenter: Kathy Daniher, LCPC; Director of Homeless Outreach Services, Beacon Therapeutic; Chicago
Location: Room 4E
Getting Agency Buy-In for Systems Change
Change is hard yet necessary. Just as individuals need to harness motivation to fuel their climb toward change, so do organizations. This workshop will provide participants with strategies to create and sustain systemic change within their organizations. The presenters will describe an organizational change model that mirrors clinical approaches by addressing the perceptual and behavioral drivers and restrainers of change. Examples of and concrete strategies for enhancing drivers and addressing restrainers will be provided and explored.
Presenter: Edward Stellon, MS, MA, CADC; Senior Director of Community and Specialty Services; Ann Marie Grimberg, MEd; Associate Director of Systems Integration and Strategic Partnerships; Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights, Chicago
Location: Room 4F
1 – 2:30 p.m.
Housing and Health Care: Integrating and Capitalizing on Existing Resources and Relationships
When health outcomes improve for people following an entrance into stable housing, these outcomes are highly influenced by the inter-provider relationships and the level of integration that has been established. Successful treatment outcomes for a formerly homeless population require a significant degree of flexibility, diligence, and teamwork. This session will explore integrated practices and organizational structures that enhance health outcomes in these settings, including interagency team development, multisite coordination, and communication surrounding sensitive health concerns, along with integrated treatment planning for physical health and co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders.
Presenter: David Kemp, MS, MA, CADC; Training and Technical Assistance Manager, Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights; Chicago
Location: Room 4G
Opportunities for Opioid Safety and Community-Based Overdose Management
Drug overdose has become the #1 cause of death among adults experiencing homelessness. During this workshop, we will explore the role of overdose education and naloxone distribution in reducing overdose death and discuss ways it has been implemented among homeless groups. We will also show some examples of health care for the homeless policy modifications aimed at minimizing overdose risk.
Presenter: Maya Doe-Simkins, MPH; Training and Technical Assistance Manager, Midwest Harm Reduction Institute; Chicago
Location: Room 4D
Cultural Competence with Persons Involved in the Sex Trade
This interactive workshop provides an overview of theories of sex work and introduces helping professionals to best practices for engaging in work with individuals involved in the sex trade. The workshop will present the language and terminology related to sex work and discuss the crucial differences between trafficking and consensual adult sex work. The workshop also explores recommended practices for communicating with sex workers in the field and in clinical settings while addressing current legislation that affects sex industry workers.
Presenters: Cassandra Avenatti, MSW; Founder, Project Fierce; Executive Board Member, Sex Workers Outreach Project; Chicago
Location: Room 4E
Building a Comprehensive Model of Care for LGBT Youth Experiencing Homelessness
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth must navigate the typical challenges of adolescence while also managing the social stigma associated with their emerging sexual and gender minority identities. As a result, many LGBT youth are at higher risk for certain behavioral and emotional issues, homelessness, bullying, and other forms of victimization. In this session, we will discuss the unique health and developmental challenges of LGBT youth and describe ways that providers can address these issues. Through sensitive, confidential communication with LGBT youth, providers in health care settings and homeless services can become a vital source of support for this vulnerable population.
Presenter: Rob Garofalo, MD, MPH; Associate Professor and Attending Physician, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Children’s Memorial Hospital; Chicago
Location: Room 4F