Resource Search Results

Shelter Health: Leveraging Partnerships to Improve Access and Build a Healthier Shelter Environment (2024). Resource Type: Toolkit. Description: This toolkit contains resources health centers and shelters may use to improve access to primary care for people experiencing homelessness and identify strategies to create strong partnerships between shelters, health centers and local health departments. More Details...

How EHRs Can Be Leveraged to Streamline Social Needs Screening: Screening for Housing Status and other Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) measures Webinar (2024). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: Is your health center planning, implementing, or revamping a social needs screening program? The National Health Care for the Homeless Council and the HITEQ Center hosted a free webinar on Tuesday, February 6th, 2024, from 2 - 3 pm Eastern (1 - 2 pm Central) where they taught participants how to screen for housing status and other Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) measures that can be introduced or better integrated into health center clinical workflows. Presenters shared guidance on implementing and systematizing social needs data collection in Electronic Health Records (EHRs), followed by a panel of expert health center representatives who spoke about their programs & journeys with social needs screening programs. Participants had the opportunity to ask questions, share successes, or discuss specific challenges they faced regarding social needs screening. While this webinar focused on health care for the homeless (HCH) health centers, anyone involved directly in social needs screening or interested in improving screening processes was welcome to attend. More Details...

Health Centers and Syringe Services Programs (2023). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Our new resource emphasizes HRSA policy allowing health centers to participate in SSPs, outlines models of care, and provides best practices and resources for moving forward to provide health center patients access to syringes. More Details...

A Framework for Medical Respite Care (2023). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Medical respite care is defined as acute and post-acute care for people experiencing homelessness who are too ill or frail to recover from a physical illness or injury on the streets or in shelter, but who are not ill enough to be in a hospital. While programs vary in size and structure, they all share the same fundamental elements: short-term residential care that allows people experiencing homelessness the opportunity to rest, recover, and heal in a safe environment while accessing medical care and other supportive services. Medical respite care (also referred to as recuperative care) has grown substantially since its inception in the 1980’s, as more communities are recognizing the need for programs that address gaps in affordable housing and health care. As the field grows, so does the need for resources for programs and providers to ensure the clients* who access medical respite services are receiving safe and quality care. More Details...

2022 Caucus on Homelessness Program Summary (2023). Resource Type: Publication. Description: In 2022, the National Health Care for the Homeless Council chaired the development of the Caucus on Homelessness (CoH) program for the American Public Health Association (APHA) 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo. The theme of the annual meeting was: \"150 Years of Creating the Healthiest Nation: Leading the Path Toward Equity.\" More Details...

Safety and Security Series: The Basics (2023). Resource Type: E-Learning. Description: Safety and security are primary issues for both patients and staff of health care for the homeless health centers. It is important for health center staff to understand foundational factors to consider and discuss in order to increase their own personal safety and support the safety and security of their team members and patients. More Details...

Medical Respite Care: The Role of Case Managers, Community Health Workers, and Peers (2023). Resource Type: E-Learning. Description: Case managers, community health workers (CHWs), and peers are often the primary staff responsible for care coordination and implementation of care plans in medical respite. Beyond this, they build relationships and safety for medical respite care clients. This course provides an overview of each role within the medical respite program and recommended best and promising practices for staff within these roles. More Details...

Models of Medical Respite Care (2022). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This document serves as a guide to describe the models of medical respite care programs and types and intensity of clinical, case management, and care coordination services that can be expected within each MRC setting. More Details...

Promising Practices: Providing Behavioral Health Care in a Medical Respite Setting (2022). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This report presents a summary of the findings and highlights promising practices in behavioral health care that are currently being implemented in medical respite care (MRC) programs across the country. It outlines strategies and approaches that can be replicated and adapted to other programs’ unique contexts, equipping them to deliver high-quality care that is consistent with the Standards for Medical Respite Care and is responsive to the needs of people experiencing homelessness (PEH) in their communities. More Details...

Rebuilding Systems: Adapting Housing Assessments to Prioritize Health, Equity, and Belonging (2022). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This document is designed to provide a framework communities can use to create equity within their CE process. There is no one tool that can accommodate the unique resources of all communities but applying this guidance will help achieve equity in the process. More Details...

Health Centers Improve Health Outcomes with Medical Respite Care (2022). Resource Type: Publication. Description: The purpose of this issue brief is to describe medical respite care programs, illustrate how health centers can fulfill mission and add value to their community by adding a medical respite care program, outline both the advantages and challenges to such an expansion, and offer action steps for health centers to consider. As the larger health care system increasingly focuses on addressing social determinants of health (such as the lack of housing) through innovative care approaches, HRSA-funded health centers play an important role as a key health care partner in communities across the nation. More Details...

Meeting Where They Are: Innovating Mobile Services in COVID Aware World (2022). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: The Health Care for the Homeless Community has long been providing innovative care in a mobile setting. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated both the need and opportunity to build on the mobile model of care and push for creative ways to do so. This webinar highlighted the efforts of communities who have taken mobile services in a new direction. More Details...

One Community's Collaborative Approach: A Spotlight on Yakima, Washington (2022). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This spotlight interview includes the housing, CoC, and MRC leaders in Yakima, Washington. They describe their MRC program, how it fits within their community’s response to homelessness, their collective approaches to racial equity, and specific ways they have strengthened their system through their collaboration. More Details...

Expanding Options for Health Care Within Homelessness Services: CoC Partnerships with Medical Respite Care Programs (2022). Resource Type: Publication. Description: A brief to improve health care quality and outcomes for people experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 response by strengthening partnerships between homelessness assistance systems and medical respite care (MRC) providers. This brief features the views of both Continuums of Care (CoCs) and MRC staff about how to best integrate operations at the systemic level, as well as featuring a community spotlight on the CoC-MRC partnership in Yakima, Washington. More Details...

The Biden Administration's COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate: Frequently Asked Questions for the HCH Community (2021). Resource Type: Publication. Description: On November 4, the Biden Administration issued two rules to provide further guidance on the COVID-19 vaccine mandate announced in early September. One rule outlines the requirements for health care facilities, while the second rule outlines those for private employers with 100+ employees. The National HCH Council has previously endorsed organizations that issued vaccine mandates, and we are grateful to see these new guidelines announced because they will increase the number of people getting vaccinated. To help with initial planning, below are answers to frequently asked questions for how the new rules will impact the Health Care for the Homeless community. More Details...

Clinical Guidelines for Medical Respite Care: Chronic Conditions (2021). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Medical respite/recuperative programs should utilize this guideline to consider opportunities for modifications to their programs and services to more intentionally address chronic condition management within their scope of services. This document provides guidance to increase understanding of chronic conditions, condition management, and potential interventions that may be implemented within the medical respite/ recuperative care setting. More Details...

Culturally Competent Care: Learning Collaborative (2020). Resource Type: Other. Description: This is a learning collaborative series of 4 sessions where Health Center staff learned about standards for providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) to their patients. Slides and recordings for all sessions are available here as well as resources to facilitate the implementation of CLAS in health center settings. More Details...

The Path Forward: Re-Imagining Primary Care During and Beyond the Pandemic (2020). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: As the nation struggles with the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and racism, the moment is upon us to deeply examine and reshape the primary care delivery system for underserved communities. In this webinar, leadership of the Community Health Center, Inc. and its Weitzman Institute will lay out a road map for the new Path Forward. We invite health center and safety net providers, staff, consumer leaders and others to join the conversation and contribute their expertise, perspective and ideas. More Details...

Developing Cross-Sector Partnerships (2020). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This guide provides health center staff with tools and strategies to initiate, develop, and sustain community partnerships to better serve older adult residents of public housing. Content of this publication was developed through a 4-session learning collaborative launched by the SDOH academy with a small cohort of HRSA-funded health centers, HCCNs, and PCAs. More Details...

Ask & Code: Documenting Homelessness Throughout The Health Care System (2016). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Emerging health care financing models require much more sophisticated actuarial calculations than previous payment arrangements, often taking into account risk factors such as homelessness. Homelessness also has direct implications for clinical treatment decisions and integrated care models and should be noted in individual patient records. This policy brief provides a rationale for using the ICD-10-CM code for homelessness, outlines the challenges to maximizing this code, and offers strategies to consider to ensure health care providers ask about homelessness and record patients’ housing status. More Details...