RES 97089 - Laserfiche WebLink

Chapter 9: Integrated Health Care INTEGRATED HEALTH CARE Introduction A significant portion of the Alameda County homeless population suffers from health, mental health, or alcohol and drug (AOD) problems, or some combination of these problems. The numbers increase significantly among chronically homeless people who are often the hardest to serve. Homeless people with one disability are also at greater risk for developing other disabilities than their housed counterparts. Homeless people with disabilities face great obstacles to having their housing and service needs met. They are often subject to misunderstandings about their disabilities and symptoms. Housing providers may fail to recognize their capacity to live in non-institutionalized housing or the level or improvement in health, mental health or recovery which may be possible from stabilized housing. Support services to make independent living possible are often limited, based on geography and community attitudes. A primary reason these problems persist is the lack of integration of consumers and residents in the planning and delivery of health care and housing-based services. People who are homeless or at risk of homelessness generally receive health treatment through the public system of care. Within Alameda County, these services are largely provided by the County Health Care for the Homeless Program, and services of the Alameda County Health Care Service Agency and Berkeley Department of Health Services, both of which have sub-departments responsible for the different service/disability categories. Homeless people and those at risk of homelessness are currently receiving different treatment within many, and in some cases, most of these sub-departments. Many homeless people are dually or triply diagnosed with physical health, mental health, and AOD problems. These problems should be recognized and treated holistically, but often are not because the systems that provide services to them often operate autonomously. Inter-system communication tends to focus on identifying a primary diagnosis solely to establish fiscal responsibility. Obtaining all of these services from multiple, uncoordinated service systems is extremely difficult. As a result, homeless people tend only to access these and other health services when their need becomes acute, requiring the most expensive treatment. Improving the delivery of health services to homeless people, will both reduce the numbers of people who continue to cycle through periods of homelessness and reduce the high cost of acute medical, in-patient substance abuse, and psychiatric treatment. Alameda County-Wide Homeless Continuum of Care Plan: April 1997 113