NEW: Committee Hopes End Chronic Homelessness
Monday, March 26, 2012
A new collaborative made up of leadership from state, federal, provider, academic, and advocacy sectors are working together to cut the number of chronically homeless Rhode Islanders from 485 to zero through concrete policy change and The Providence Center’s Home Base program. {image_1)
“RI is in the process of revising its plan to end homelessness to reflect the federal plan, Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to End Homelessness,” said Michelle Brophy, Director of New England Program, Corporation for Supportive Housing and the Home Base Steering Committee Co-chair. “Home Base reflects the strategies in the plan. The Providence Center provides critical services for people experiencing chronic homelessness through Home Base and the steering committee hopes to use lessons learned from the program to impact policy and create the systems change needed so our most vulnerable residents are not falling through the cracks and are connected to mainstream resources.”
The steering committee will look at Home Base, which provides a full menu of behavioral health, primary care and supportive services to 200 chronically homeless people each year and supportive housing to 50 people each year, as an example of the cost-effectiveness of comprehensive behavioral health and primary care service provision in conjunction with supported housing as a means to end crisis care and help Rhode Islanders who were chronically homeless achieve long-term housing and health outcomes.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“We are excited to bring policy change and service provision together through this steering committee,” said Dale K. Klatzker, PhD, President/ CEO of The Providence Center. “It’s tremendously rewarding to work with individuals who have dedicated their time and talents to our most vulnerable citizens with the prospect of producing real and lasting change.”
The Home Base Steering Committee was developed through a Providence Center held federal grant with the twin goals of providing a full menu of services including supported housing for chronically homeless Rhode Islanders with behavioral health needs and spearhead policy change. The committee is made up of leadership from The Providence Center, The state Department of Behavioral Health, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH), The state Office of Health and Human Services (OHHS), The Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH), RI Housing Authority, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA), Providence Community Health Centers (PCHC), RI housing providers, homeless advocates, and researchers from Miriam/Brown and Providence College.
The Providence Center is at the forefront of innovative approaches to behavioral health care designed to meet the changing needs of the more than 11,000 people served each year. In just the past year TPC has hired more than 160 people - including the creation of 58 brand new positions -and added a number of new innovative programs to cope with increased demand for behavioral health services. New programs include the state’s first recovery community center, the first in-state integrated behavioral and primary care practice in partnership with Providence Community Health Center, and the Home Base program, which provides housing and integrated primary and behavioral health care to the chronically homeless.
Since The Providence Center opened its doors in 1969, it has been a community fixture, providing people from all walks of life with mental health and substance use services in their homes, schools and neighborhoods. In addition to comprehensive high-quality behavioral health services, The Providence Center gives people the tools they need to succeed. Through 39 programs and wrap around services including food and housing, job training, legal services, primary health care and wellness activities The Providence Center helps the people we serve succeed.
