COSIG CONFERENCE BROCHURE.pdf - Drexel University College ...

DRAFT – Community Based and Recovery oriented Housing Options for individuals with
Serious Mental Illness or co-occuring disorders.
Need – to provide housing to individuals with mental illness in their own home communities,
through application of flexible and creative housing strategies which support and enhance
Recovery.
Issues
• Stable, affordable safe, decent and sanitary housing is a major component of a successful
recovery for individuals suffering from a serious mental illness (SMI) or a co-occurring
mental illness and substance abuse disorder (COD) . There is a great need for the Office
of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS) to concentrate simply on
housing issues for the population of persons in the state who are affected by serious
mental illness, or co-occurring disorders of serious mental illness and substance abuse.
Studies have shown that persons who are satisfied with their housing and have a stable
secure place of their own are more compliant with therapy, tend to have fewer and shorter
inpatient stays and generally have more successful recovery.
• Housing is an issue because it is expensive, and most persons with SMI or COD have
limited incomes. Recently many if not most persons with a disability who rely on SSI
have been priced out of the private rental market in many areas. Safe decent affordable
housing for low-income persons, a group which includes many disabled individuals, is
disappearing in areas with strong economies, and in which the rental subsidies offered by
the government have not kept pace with real rental costs.
-Concept - Housing should be separated from services. This concept requires that we develop
a new focus on: how we provide housing services to individuals with SMI and COD; the process
we use to move persons out of mental hospitals into community residential settings; and also
how we use residential services in the community to prevent long-term hospitalization. This new
focus demands that we complete a full paradigm shift from the 1970's oriented protective,
custodial view of housing and services for persons with SMI or COD; to a concept of
recovery and informed consumer choice, of both housing options and supportive services.
-Background – Residential services, in the Community Residential Rehabilitation Services
(CRRS) and Long Term Structured Residences (LTSR’s) funded and licensed by the OMHSAS,
are attached to specific housing sites, and are ranked according to the staffing needs presented by
the level of severity of the consumer’s illness and the need to provide care and supervision.
Most of the residential services funded through the OMHSAS, including CRRS and LTSR’s,
have not traditionally been considered permanent housing for the individual. The housing sites
are meant to be transitional residences, in which training, rehabilitation and supportive services
are offered on site and in connection or coordination with other community treatment services
that are included in the individual’s mental health treatment plan. Where a mental health
consumer lives is based on what level of staffing and support he needs, similar to the state
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