Permanent Supportive Housing for the Homeless

Homeless Individuals With Mental Illness and Permanent Supportive Housing
Homeless people with severe mental illness have a difficult time transitioning into a more stable living condition. Finding permanent supportive housing for mentally ill homeless persons can be essential to helping to improve their condition and quality of life, and yet such housing can be rare due to lack of funds and/or governmental support/oversight.

Question to be Addressed

What interventions help homeless individuals with severe mental illness transition into a more stable living condition; specifically, does supportive housing translate into better quality of life for homeless individuals with mental illness -- and if so, how?

Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH)

PSH can be defined as a combination of housing and services oriented towards helping persons with serious mental health issues who require support for stable living. PSH acts as a housing community that combines shelter with health care.

The effect of PSH on homeless individuals with mental health issues is overwhelmingly positive (Tsemberis, Gulcur, Nakae, 2004; Martinez, Burt, 2006; Rog et al., 2014). Homeless individuals who suffer from mental illness who are able to receive PSH are reported to spend less time in the emergency room receiving care from hospital providers. They are also more likely to be able to live stably and independently as a result of PSH intervention.

As the research shows, it is important for government to support permanent supportive housing for homeless persons for a number of reasons: first, it reduces the burden placed on community stakeholders as a result of costs incurred/associated with treating mentally ill homeless persons who receive care from emergency rooms in hospitals (Rog et al., 2014; Tsemberis et al., 2004). The tax paying citizens who must ultimately shoulder the bill for these services may thus be in this manner reimbursed and their own load lightened, as research has indicated that PSH cuts costs associated with ER visits. Second, government can stabilize communities by offering PSH for homeless mentally ill persons and give them a place where they can receive care, be off the streets, and be adequately provided for, thus allowing for social workers and community organizers to provide housing for the homeless and clean up their neighborhoods (Martinez, Burt, 2006). Introduction
Homeless persons with mental illness are a serious problem for society, because they are often left to fend for themselves and cannot live up to the task without help. They require quality medical care in order to have a significant quality of life -- yet because they are homeless they do not receive this kind of care (Martinez, Burt, 2006). This is where permanent supportive housing comes into play: it is a substantial variable in the transitioning of homeless mentally ill persons to a more stable way of life, where they can be sheltered and properly/adequately cared for. PSH acts as a gateway for homeless persons with mental illness in the sense that it transfers them from the streets to a place of permanent shelter; it removes them from the ERs of hospitals and places them in a setting where they can be monitored and observed by a trained staff that looks out for their needs on a regular basis (Rog et al., 2014). In this manner, PSH acts as a suitable place for homeless persons with mental health issues by providing them a real world form of shelter that is consistent with the aims of a governing and charitable society and that helps individuals who need obtain a better quality of life. Programs like Housing First are instrumental in giving homeless persons with mental health issues the kind of independent housing that is consistent with humane objectives and that does not compromise on the psychiatric values and goals associated with substance abuse treatment and/or mental illness interventions (Tsemberis et al., 2004). Conclusion
The intervention that is needed to address the issue of homeless persons suffering from mental illness and what to do with them so as to reduce costs to the community and provide a stable environment for them so that they may live with a higher quality of life is evident in the Housing First program and others of its nature. In short, the answer to the problem is PSH -- permanent supportive housing (Tsemberis et al., 2004). PSH has been shown to be effective in supporting homeless persons with mental health issues by providing them with independent housing within a contextual framework of medical care, where medical providers routinely check up on and facilitate the development and growth of mentally ill homeless persons via treatment interventions and supportive techniques (Rog et al., 2014). The PSH solution is a viable and effective strategy for addressing the homeless problem and ensuring that mentally ill persons living on the streets can have a place to go to live with a better quality of life, receiving the care they need and reducing the number of trips they must undergo to the ER in order to be treated (Martinez, Burt, 2006). The evidence provided by researchers who have examined the issue of homeless mentally ill persons and PSH indicates that the PSH intervention is a suitable method of treating the issue.

References

Martinez, T., Burt, M. (2006). Impact of permanent supportive housing on the use of acute care health services by homeless adults. Psychiatric Services, 57(7): 992-999.

Rog, D. et al. (2014). Permanent supportive housing: Assessing the evidence.

Psychiatric Services, 65(3): 287-294.

Tsemberis, S., Gulcur, L., Nakae, M. (2004). Housing first, consumer choice, and harm reduction for homeless individuals with a dual diagnosis. American Journal of Public Health, 94(4): 651-656.