News: Housing Really is Health Care: The Evidence Continues to Grow

From the Fall 2008 Newsletter

In its recently published final evaluation of the Frequent Users of Health Services Initiative, the authors note that homeless frequent users connected to permanent housing saw dramatic reductions in Emergency Department visits and costs as well as inpatient days and costs when compared to frequent users who remained homeless.  They also saw improved health stability.

Lifelong Medical Care’s Project Respect, here in Alameda County, was one of the six programs piloted across California to “promote the development of innovative, integrated approaches to address the comprehensive health and social service needs frequent users of emergency departments, and decrease avoidable emergency department visits and hospital stays.” The programs operated from 2004 and 2007 and achieved tremendous results.

The initiative funded by the California Endowment and California HealthCare Foundation and coordinated by the Corporation for Supportive Housing quickly discovered that housing was a critical factor in addressing the health concerns of this population.  With Project Respect leading the way in connecting frequent users to permanent housing it became abundantly clear that housing had as great an impact as any intervention in reducing the expensive visits to emergency departments and inpatient hospital stays as the table below indicates.

For more information on the Initiative or to get a complete copy of the Evaluation study, visit www.frequenthealthusers.org.