Recorded presentation

Daniel B. Herman, DSW, MS¹, Alan Felix, MD², Sally Conover, MPH³, and Ezra Susser, MD, DrPH³. (1) Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, Room 1707, New York, NY 10032, 212-740-5904, dbh14@columbia.edu, (2) Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 1051 Riverside Drive, Unit 56, New York, NY 10032, (3) Department of Epidemiology, Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032

Critical Time Intervention (CTI) is a time-limited psychosocial intervention designed to prevent homelessness and other adverse outcomes among persons with mental illness following discharge from institutions to the community. Originally growing out of our clinical experience with homeless mentally ill men leaving a large publicly-operated shelter in New York City, the major focus of CTI is on increasing continuity of care during this critical period of transition. CTI consists of in vivo training in community living skills and team-managed transfer of caregiving to services and supports in the community. It is a simple, inexpensive model intended to be adaptable to a variety of service delivery settings and populations.

In this session, we will first describe the rationale and the fundamental principles of the intervention. We will then briefly summarize the results of a completed randomized trial of its effectiveness with severely mentally ill men being discharged from a large homeless shelter in New York City and describe an ongoing study of CTI with homeless mentally ill men and women following discharge from state hospital inpatient care. Finally, we will consider the implications of this research for the application of the model in other service delivery settings and with other populations at risk of recurrent homelessness.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the rationale and key principles of Critical Time Intervention (CTI)
• Assess how the CTI model might be usefully applied in other service delivery settings or with other populations

Keywords: Homelessness, Mental Illness

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation