This proposal describes a study of the costs of two types of housing for homeless mentally ill adults and their relation to consumer-specific treatment costs and outcomes over an 18 month study period. The proposed study analyzes data from one hundred twenty homeless mentally ill consumers living in transitional mental health shelters are assigned randomly to one of two permanent housing types: Evolving Consumer Households or single occupancy apartment. The goals of the project are 1) to demonstrate the feasibility of placing homeless adults in consumer- directed group home living, 2) to measure the extent to which this placement increases housing stability and community tenure and 3) to explore the relation between housing assignment and consumer outcomes. this study will address one of the most often discussed questions among experts in mental illness and housing policy today: What are the trade- offs in cost and outcome between independent housing for homeless mentally ill adults on the one hand and residential treatment that provides on-site support in a consumer-directed environment on the other? Specifically, we seek to answer the following questions: * What does it cost on average, in each of the housing conditions, to house, to provide case-management and mental health treatment, per consumer over the course of the study period? * Does housing type affect patterns of care and case-management (and thus, costs)? * What is the relation between costs of housing, case-management and treatment per consumer and consumer outcomes, in the two housing conditions? * What is the relation between consumer housing preferences and levels of satisfaction and per consumer costs over the study period?
| Dickey, B; Latimer, E; Powers, K et al. (1997) Housing costs for adults who are mentally ill and formerly homeless. J Ment Health Adm 24:291-305 |
| Dickey, B; Gonzalez, O; Latimer, E et al. (1996) Use of mental health services by formerly homeless adults residing in group and independent housing. Psychiatr Serv 47:152-8 |
