Because Health Care is a Right, Not a Privilege

Discharge Planning

Content Manager: Brenda Proffitt, MHA

PREVENTING HOMELESSNESS THROUGH DISCHARGE PLANNING
The Role of Effective Discharge Planning in Preventing Homelessness looks at discharge planning and its role in the continuum of care. Assessment and treatment, planning for discharge, and service coordination and integration are the three primary strategies outlined to help prevent homelessness among those with special needs leaving an institutional setting and returning to the community. This study also looks at innovative strategies used in various ten-year plans and provides recommendations for future discharge planning strategies.
Journal of Primary Prevention | Special Issue: Homelessness & Mental Illness | Vol. 28, Nos. 3 - 4, July 2007

NEW GUIDANCE ON DISCHARGING HOMELESS HOSPITAL PATIENTS
These guidelines are issued jointly by the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department of Health. They represent recommended practice for organizations involved in hospital admission and meeting the needs of people who are homeless or living in temporary or insecure accommodation, and were drawn up by an expert steering group consisting of representatives from Homeless Link, the London Network for Nurses and Midwives, and the Health Inclusion Project Advisory Group. Homeless Link has also produced four fact sheets (Developing integrated care pathways for homeless people, The Housing Act, Housing Status, and Resource/Intranet Book) to accompany the guidelines. These resources  are available on the Homeless Link website.

EVALUABILITY ASSESSMENT OF DISCHARGE PLANNING AND THE PREVENTION OF HOMELESSNESS
Recent research findings released in September 2005 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) on discharge planning as a strategy to prevent homelessness add new insights to the research foundation that shapes federal policy and the goal of ending chronic homelessness. The study was intended to build knowledge for researchers and policy makers in the field of homelessness regarding the potential to evaluate discharge planning in institutional and custodial settings.

ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR DISCHARGE PLANNING
Various public and private institutions contribute to homelessness by discharging their wards to the streets or shelters. Ending such practices is an important, current tactic in the struggle to end homelessness itself. We encourage health care providers and other advocates for homeless people to examine the impact of ineffective institutional discharges on homelessness in your own communities and to advocate for policies that will help prevent homelessness. To that end, we provide these resources that have been compiled by the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance. These resources document the remarkable strides made in Massachusetts, provide practical models that are replicable in many communities, and include major documents on discharge planning from the national level.

dischargeIMPROVING DISCHARGE PLANNING OUTCOMES
On April 13, 2004, Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher signed into law HB 376, the Homeless Prevention Pilot Project, which states: "discharge to an emergency shelter is not appropriate" and bars discharges from foster care, mental health hospitals and corrections into homelessness. Public systems will be required to provide appropriate discharge planning supports that include housing placement and links to other resources to achieve successful re-entry into the community. "Stopping institutional discharge into homelessness is part of our Metro Louisville Blueprint to End Homelessness, which we created in 2001," stated Marlene Gordon, Executive Director of The Coalition for the Homeless in Louisville, which supported passage of the legislation.

HOMELESSNESS PREVENTION/DISCHARGE PLANNING PROTOCOLS IN MASSACHUSETTS
dischargeRead what the state of Massachusetts did to educate state agencies regarding discharge planning strategies and protocols, and reduce and eliminate discharges to homelessness. Visit this site to learn more about this replicable strategy to prevent homelessness developed by the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance.