A partnership to win the Challenge of housing homeless youth with early psychosis and substance misuse
Poster B88, Friday, October 21, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Le Baron
Amal Abdel-Baki1,2,3, Nicolas Girard3, Marie-Maud Sylvestre4, Cecile Arbaud5; 1Centre hospitalier Université Montréal research center, 2Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medecine, University Of Montreal, 3Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, 4Maison Saint-Dominique, 5Dans la rue
Context: Finding a place to stay can be a challenge for youth suffering from early psychosis especially for those with homelessness and substance use disorder. Community organisations working with homeless youth are not well trained to handle consequences of psychiatric symptoms and specialised mental health housing often feel overwhelmed by homeless youth and/or by substance use disorder related issues. Objective: Since 2011, the Clinique JAP- CHUM sought to develop collaborations with community organisation partners to better fulfill the housing support needs of those youth. Results: In partnership Maison Saint-Dominique, a community organisation offering housing to individuals with mental illness, and the early intervention for psychosis Clinique JAP, developed housing projects including '2 months emergency appartements' allowing to get off the street or the hospital, followed by the possibility of 1-2 year supervised apartments (with flatmates) targeting an early psychosis clientele with or without cognitive difficulties and/or severe substance misuse with intensive rehabilitation services. Finally an 'housing first' project allows youth to get their own apartment in the community with the support of a intervention worker and rent subsidies. Another project was also developed with 'Dans la Rue-Le Bunker', a night shelter for youth to prolong the usual 5 nights stays with the objective to allow treatment engagement and until proper housing can be found. Administrative and clinical 'organisation', challenges (eg. financial) and successes will be discussed. Conclusion: Merging "institutional" and "community organisations" ressources, skills and experiences can allow to achieve better outcomes for youth with more complex comorbid clinical presentations.
Topic Area: Psychosocial Interventions