From hospital to housing, with a little help from friendsĀ 

For the past three years, St. Patrick Center, a program of Catholic Charities Archdiocese of St. Louis, Ā and BJC HealthCare have shown positive outcomes for unhoused clients by providing wraparound services to reduce emergency department and inpatient utilization and stabilize lives.Ā  The goal is to continue to provide services and expand to 40 patients needing mental health, substance use, medical and housing services to help reduce the burden on our emergency care system.Ā Ā Ā 

To that end, St. Patrick Center, BJC HealthCare and Behavioral Health Network received notice recently that they had been awarded $800,000 in federal funds to continue their partnership and services to some of the community’s most vulnerable members. These clients are considered ā€œsuper utilizersā€ of the emergency department at BJC and usually suffer from co-occurring and comorbidity issues.Ā 

ā€œSt. Patrick Center, working alongside Behavioral Health Network and BJC HealthCare, has proven that our Hospital to Housing model not only improves lives, but saves lives by providing critical services to vulnerable community members,ā€ said Jonathan Belcher, senior director of programs, long-term transformation, at St. Patrick Center. ā€œMany of the patients we serve are those who have fallen through the cracks, and it’s our job to help mend those cracks.ā€Ā 

Belcher attributed the recent awarding of federal funds – one of 10 awards made through the office of Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) to support community project initiatives in her district – to the ā€œimmediate and long-lasting positive outcomesā€ for both the hospital and clients of the Hospital to Housing model. Ā 

ā€œThese funds will allow us to extend and expand our work providing housing and stabilization services to some of our most vulnerable community members,ā€ he said.

Healthy Housing Initiative

The CCUSA Healthy Housing Initiative is a person-centered, comprehensive approach to address chronic homelessness through ā€œwraparoundā€ services in the form of emotional, social and physical support.

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