Resource Search Results

Demonstrating Value: Measuring the Impact of the Health Care for the Homeless Grantees (2017). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This publication provides clear examples of the uniqueness of the population experiencing homelessness and the invaluable work Health Care for the Homeless grantees providing direct services give to our communities. Additionally, first-hand accounts are provided in linked audio files, attesting the value of HCH grantees. More Details...

Addressing the Opioid Epidemic: How the Opioid Crisis Affects Homeless Populations (2017). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This fact sheet provides data on how the opioid crisis disproportionately affects people experiencing homelessness and points to treatment recommendations. More Details...

Medical Respite Care: Financing Approaches (2017). Resource Type: Publication. Description: The Council’s “Medical Respite Care: Financing Approaches” brief details practical considerations for creating or growing financially sustainable medical respite care programs. As communities look to reduce health care costs and improve patient outcomes, medical respite care programs fill a critical need for people without homes. To help fund this vital care, our brief details medical respite, provides a rationale for creating such programs, outlines financing approaches, and suggests steps for effective implementation. More Details...

Financing Medical Respite Care: A Practical Discussion to Ensure Sustainability (2017). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: As communities aim to reduce health care costs and improve patient outcomes, medical respite care programs are filling a critical need for people who are experiencing homelessness. Whether providing hospitals with a safe and legal discharge option, or creating a bridge between hospital and supportive housing programs, medical respite care is a key piece of the local continuum of health care. This webinar provides an overview of the most common ways to fund medical respite and give practical advice for how to start or grow a program in your area. More Details...

Storytelling Guide (2017). Resource Type: Other. Description: Storytelling helps share experiences of homelessness, and highlights the services that helped while facing homelessness and transitioning into housing. Sharing these experiences can demonstrate that homelessness can happen to anyone based on a health need, job loss, natural disaster, or domestic violence situation. People experiencing homelessness developed this guide as a tool to be used by others experiencing homelessness. More Details...

Virtual Training- Webinar Series, contains archived webinars on Trauma Informed Care, Motivational Interviewing, Colorectal Cancer Screenings, Trauma and Youth, Fostering Trauma-Informed Leadership Skills for Consumers, UDS Secondary Data Analysis (2017). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: This series contains archived webinars on Trauma-Informed Care, Motivational Interviewing, Colorectal Cancer Screenings, Trauma and Youth, Fostering Trauma-Informed Leadership Skills for Consumers, and UDS Secondary Data Analysis. More Details...

Nicotine Anonymous Peer Support Groups: Can They Work in the Homeless Service Settings? (2017). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This enterprising study features results from three participating HCH sites, finding that NicA meetings are feasible given the capacity of support staff and health centers to reduce barriers to participation. More Details...

Best Practices and Considerations for Wound Care: Healing Hands (2017). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Research has shown that people experiencing homelessness often experience acute wounds as a result of lacerations, injuries, fractures, stabbing or gunshot wounds, burns, frostbite, and chronic medical conditions such as diabetes. When these acute wounds are not adequately treated, they can evolve into chronic wounds, such as venous stasis ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers, or intravenous (IV) drug use site infections. This issue of Healing Hands provides perspectives on the role of clinics, respite facilities, outreach teams, and community partnerships in facilitating improved wound care for people experiencing homelessness. More Details...

Trauma Informed Care Webinar Series (2016). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: Featuring nationally celebrated trauma expert Matt Bennett, this four-part webinar series examines how the Trauma-Informed Care paradigm can play a critical role not only in transforming providers’ approaches to care, but also in informing direct advocacy for real solutions to end homelessness. More Details...

Shelter Health: Opportunities for Health Care for the Homeless Projects (2016). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This issue brief identifies certain health issues that can be particularly affected by shelter conditions, identifies opportunities for health centers to be engaged in local efforts to improve shelter health, and describes environmental health services supported by the federal Health Center Program. More Details...

Ask & Code: Documenting Homelessness Throughout The Health Care System (2016). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Emerging health care financing models require much more sophisticated actuarial calculations than previous payment arrangements, often taking into account risk factors such as homelessness. Homelessness also has direct implications for clinical treatment decisions and integrated care models and should be noted in individual patient records. This policy brief provides a rationale for using the ICD-10-CM code for homelessness, outlines the challenges to maximizing this code, and offers strategies to consider to ensure health care providers ask about homelessness and record patients’ housing status. More Details...

Serving Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Persons: Establishing and Improving Models of Care for Those without Homes (2016). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Drawing from current literature and interviews conducted with health centers and a social support organization, this guide provides promising practices to consider when establishing or improving upon TGNC health services, including community needs, program structure, and funding. More Details...

Safety in the Health Care for the Homeless Settings: Consumer Perceptions and Advice (2016). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Responding to the findings of a recent survey conducted by the HCH National Consumer Advisory Board, this resource provides recommendations for developing physical spaces that promote well-being, considerations for vulnerable populations, and strategies for providing workforce and staff support. More Details...

A Quick Guide on Consumer Engagement in Governance of Health Care for the Homeless Programs (2016). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Health centers serving people experiencing homelessness must meaningfully involve consumers with the lived experience of homelessness in their governance, either on their governance Board or through structures like Consumer Advisory Boards. This guide provides practical tips for organizations in setting up effective, empowering consumer governance structures and supports. The ideas in this Quick Guide were developed through conversations with over 20 key informants: consumer leaders, consumer support staff, and executive leaders of HCH projects who have facilitated consumer leadership both locally and nationally. More Details...

Integrating Community Health Workers into Primary Care Practice: A Resource Guide for HCH Programs (2016). Resource Type: E-Learning. Description: The National HCH Council developed this resource guide to share experiences and successful recruitment and supervision strategies with other HCH projects looking to employ CHWs. This guide incorporates current research and uses feedback from administrators, supervisors, CHWs, hospital staff, community members, and clients involved in the HCIA project. More Details...

Integrated Care Teams to Improve Quality of Care: Health and Housing Integrated Care Models (2016). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: A two-part webinar series to highlight models of integrated care for vulnerable populations includng models of integrated care for primary and behavioral health More Details...

Care Coordination for Individuals Experiencing Homelessness: Healing Hands (2016). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This issue of Healing Hands discusses some of the benefits of care coordination as well as ongoing and emerging challenges for implementation of care coordination initiatives, and then presents several provider case studies that highlight solutions and emerging strategies in care coordination for clients experiencing homelessness. More Details...

Advance Care Planning for Individuals Experiencing Homelessness: In Focus (2016). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This literature review sheds light on current aging, disease, and mortality trends of people without homes while exploring their concerns about death and preferences for advanced care. It also explores implications for policy and practice to better meet the needs of individuals experiencing homelessness. More Details...

Patient Satisfaction Quick Guide: Addressing Patient Satisfaction in Health Care for the Homeless Projects (2016). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This quick guide examines how HCH grantees can gather and utilize patient satisfaction data to improve patient experiences. Patient satisfaction is a key measure of quality health care, and regular assessment is required for all Health Center Program Grantees. “Addressing Patient Satisfaction in Health Care for the Homeless Projects” provides a succinct review of the strategies necessary to plan for, collect, and respond to such information. These practice recommendations emerged from a 2015 focus group of expert HCH administrators and client advocates, HRSA guidance, and scientific literature. More Details...

Managed Care and Homeless Populations: Linking the HCH Community and MCO Partners (2016). Resource Type: Publication. Description: The brief includes the health care needs of this group, describes Health Care for the Homeless projects and the patients receiving care in these venues, a description of managed care, common goals between both entities, and issues that both providers and plans should consider when creating or strengthening partnerships. Because health care providers and insurance plans use different language, the terms “patient” and “member” are used throughout this brief to refer to the individuals being served. More Details...