Resource Search Results

Homeless Mortality and the Impact of COVID-19 (2021). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: This webinar gave an overview of the new Homeless Mortality Data Toolkit, featuring two communities who conduct a thorough review of homeless mortality, including reflections on the impact of COVID-19 on untimely deaths. Determining leading cause of death is a crucial part of health centers\' needs assessment requirements; for any health center serving people without homes, the strategies shared in this discussion should be central. More Details...

Medical Respite/ Recuperative Care Organizational Self-Assessment (2021). Resource Type: Publication. Description: A medical respite program should strive to meet each of the Standards’ criteria to ensure quality care. Medical Respite/Recuperative Care Organizational Self-Assessment was developed to allow programs to self-assess their fidelity to the Standards. With this tool, programs can identify aspects of their practice that align with the Standards, and also to inform strategic planning and goal setting for the growth of the program. The Organizational Self-Assessment tool identifies specific criteria to meet each of the Standards, and provides programs with a way to determine if they meet specific criteria, and if not, barriers or limitations to doing so. More Details...

Homeless Persons Mortality Toolkit (2021). Resource Type: Toolkit. Description: Homelessness is deadly. People without homes are more vulnerable to virtually every illness and injury and die, on average, 30 years earlier than housed people. As part of health centers' required periodic needs assessment, cause of death for people experiencing homelessness must be measured: this toolkit shows you how. More Details...

Food Insecurity and Trauma Informed Approaches to BMI and Diabetes Care While Experiencing Homelessness (2020). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: This archived webinar describes the importance of trauma-informed care in assessing Body Mass Index in the context of diabetes treatment for patients experiencing homelessness. More Details...

Evolution of the National Consumer Advisory Board: A Case Study in Consumer Leadership (2020). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Consumer involvement in governance is a unique feature of Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) programs and other federally supported Health Centers. The National Health Care for the Homeless Council acknowledged in its founding principles that “all people have the right to participate in the decisions affecting their lives,” and the development and growth of the National Consumer Advisory Board (NCAB) helps us live up to that principle. This new NCAB History case study serves as a testament to the work of those who helped NCAB flourish, and shares lessons learned for other consumer-led groups. More Details...

Flu Vaccine Guidance during COVID-19 for providers serving people without homes (2020). Resource Type: Infographic. Description: People experiencing homelessness are uniquely vulnerable to COVID-19 and the Flu and may face additional barriers to receiving vaccinations. A flu vaccine this season can also help reduce the burden on our healthcare systems responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. This infographic describes these key considerations. More Details...

Organizing Showers & Hygiene Access for People Living Outside (2020). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: Even before the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying economic crisis, unsheltered homelessness was on the rise. Many meaningful reasons prevent some from utilizing shelters, especially in the current environment where sleeping outside may actually mitigate risk of COVID-19 transmission. Therefore, we must meet people where they are. Enter mobile showers: a crucial hygiene service for people living in encampments. This webinar outlined the nuts and bolts of developing and operating showers, in conjunction with other services, as part of a broader organizing effort by and for houseless people. More Details...

Identifying The Enabling Services Workforce For SDOH Screening And Documentation Webinar (2020). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: The Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations, Health Outreach Partners, MHP Salud, and National Health Care for the Homeless Council partnered on this webinar to explore strategies to screen special and vulnerable populations for SDOH and build effective practices to begin addressing SDOH through Enabling Services. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, this training highlighted the critical importance for ES providers to collect social risk data among health center patients. More Details...

Building the Plane While Flying It: Health Care for the Homeless, Telehealth and COVID-19, Part II (2020). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: This Coffee Chat is the second of our series highlighting representatives from three HCH health centers featured in the Council’s recent publication on telehealth. The conversation shared information on how to engage clients through telehealth to enhance the experience and how to develop low-literacy messaging. Presenters discussed how to engage clients with limited or no access to internet or broadband services and establishing “technology hubs” can address these challenges. More Details...

Building the Plane While Flying It: Health Care for the Homeless, Telehealth, and COVID-19 (2020). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: This archived webinar highlighted Health Care for the Homeless leaders who described their distinct experiences in adopting telehealth in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The lessons learned promise to be helpful to other health centers that serve people without homes. More Details...

Building the Plane While Flying It: Case Studies on COVID-19, Telehealth, and Health Care for the Homeless Centers (2020). Resource Type: Publication. Description: As is the case for most health centers, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Health Care for the Homeless health centers to rapidly adopt telehealth strategies to sustain client services remotely. But serving patients without homes necessitates additional innovation to reach clients in shelters, quarantine facilities, or even on the street, while attending to complex health and social needs. These case studies profile 17 HCH health centers and 2 consumers, offering a range of pragmatic, insightful perspectives on HCH telehealth in the COVID world. More Details...

Testing for COVID-19 in Homeless Shelters & Encampments: Discussing CDC’s New Health Department Guidance & NHCHC’s Newest Issue Brief (2020). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: As capacity for COVID-19 testing grows in most communities, high-risk settings such as homeless shelters and encampments are increasingly being prioritized for universal testing events. New CDC guidance for health departments outlines factors that local and state agencies can use to further inform specific policies being developed for these venues. A new National HCH Council issue brief provides lessons learned and testing strategies that HCHs in five cities have found to work successfully when conducting universal testing. This webinar summarized these new resources and hosted active discussion. More Details...

Rejuvenate Consumer Leadership: Lessons from the Updated Consumer Advisory Board Manual (2020). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: Consumer Advisory Boards (CABs) are advisory groups of people who use services at a health center and work with the organization to improve program management and service delivery. Based on decades of collective experience participating in CABs, the National Consumer Advisory Board (NCAB) has updated its CAB Manual to provide accessible guidance to develop CABs. During this webinar, NCAB members unveiled the updated manual and shared lessons on how to start a CAB and maximize consumer leadership to take your work to a new level. More Details...

Consumer Advisory Board Manual (2020). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Special-populations-only health centers are eligible for a waiver of the consumer-majority Board if it meets special efforts to engage consumers. The best way to do this for Health Care for the Homeless health centers is the Consumer Advisory Board (CAB). Championed by the National CAB of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, this manual includes updated lessons from decades of relevant experience. More Details...

Harm Reduction: Healing Hands (2020). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This edition of Healing Hands from the Health Care for the Homeless Clinicians' Network explores how harm reduction principles apply to various clinical settings and explains why the philosophy is so critically important. More Details...

Medical Respite Care & Alternate Care Sites (2020). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This issue brief is intended to provide health centers, public health authorities, emergency response systems, and Alternate Care Site program administrators with an operational framework that will improve the quality of care at ACS programs and promote longer-term stability for vulnerable people. Ideally, communities can retain this increased capacity for medical respite care after the pandemic subsides given the high level of need for these programs prior to COVID-19. More Details...

Community Information Exchange: Using Data to Coordinate Care for People Experiencing Homelessness: Addressing COVID-19 and Beyond (2020). Resource Type: Publication. Description: As health centers continue to build innovative models to serve people experiencing homelessness, partnerships to address the social determinants of health become more crucial. A major challenge organizations face in building and sustaining these partnerships is communication and sharing relevant information to ensure coordinated care. Community Information Exchanges (CIE) build on the work the health care system has done to set up Health Information Exchanges and takes the next step towards integrating data with other service organizations. This publication highlights what CIEs are, how they can be used, and how this could be beneficial during health care crises like COVID-19. More Details...

Reducing Harm for People Using Drugs & Alcohol During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Guide for Alternative Care Sites (2020). Resource Type: Publication. Description: People experiencing homelessness cannot recover or protect themselves from COVID-19 at home. Therefore, Alternative Care Sites are being developed to accommodate such clients. This issue brief is intended to provide managers of alternative care sites, including health centers, with a framework for serving individuals with SUD in isolation and quarantine, and reducing possible harmful consequences. More Details...

Coordinated Entry Systems, Assessment of Vulnerability, and Housing Prioritization for People Experiencing Homelessness (2020). Resource Type: Publication. Description: It can be frustrating and confusing for people without homes to navigate complex patchworks of local homeless service organizations. This CME-accredited issue of Healing Hands focuses on how communities are implementing Coordinated Entry Systems (CESs) to help clients access necessary services through a single entry point and more efficiently coordinate assistance for people without homes. More Details...

COVID-19 & the HCH Community: Needed Policy Responses for a High-Risk Group (2020). Resource Type: Publication. Description: As the COVID-19 virus pandemic continues to grow throughout the world and in the United States, state and local public response systems are implementing a number of public health strategies to prevent further exposures and slow the spread of the virus. Infections among people experiencing homelessness will present specific challenges for those individuals, local response structures, and for Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) programs and other homeless service providers. More Details...