{"title":"'Housing First' Increased Psychiatric Care Office Visits And Prescriptions While Reducing Emergency Visits.","authors":"Devlin Hanson, Sarah Gillespie","doi":"10.1377/hlthaff.2023.01041","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Housing First is an approach to ending homelessness that recognizes permanent housing as a platform for stability and engagement in health services. As part of a randomized controlled trial to test the effects of permanent supportive housing with the Housing First approach in Denver, Colorado, we analyzed the intervention's impact on health care use, Medicaid enrollment, and mortality among people experiencing chronic homelessness who had frequent arrests and jail stays. Two years after assignment to the Housing First intervention, participants had an average of eight more office-based visits for psychiatric diagnoses, three more prescription medications, and six fewer emergency department visits than the control group. Although enrollment in Medicaid increased over the course of the study for both the intervention group and the control group, the intervention group was 5 percentage points less likely to be enrolled in Medicaid. Supportive housing had no significant impact on mortality. When considering pathways to scale up supportive housing, policy makers should recognize the potential of Housing First to facilitate the use of office-based psychiatric care and medications in a population with many health care needs.</p>","PeriodicalId":50411,"journal":{"name":"Health Affairs","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Health Affairs","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2023.01041","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/1/24 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Housing First is an approach to ending homelessness that recognizes permanent housing as a platform for stability and engagement in health services. As part of a randomized controlled trial to test the effects of permanent supportive housing with the Housing First approach in Denver, Colorado, we analyzed the intervention's impact on health care use, Medicaid enrollment, and mortality among people experiencing chronic homelessness who had frequent arrests and jail stays. Two years after assignment to the Housing First intervention, participants had an average of eight more office-based visits for psychiatric diagnoses, three more prescription medications, and six fewer emergency department visits than the control group. Although enrollment in Medicaid increased over the course of the study for both the intervention group and the control group, the intervention group was 5 percentage points less likely to be enrolled in Medicaid. Supportive housing had no significant impact on mortality. When considering pathways to scale up supportive housing, policy makers should recognize the potential of Housing First to facilitate the use of office-based psychiatric care and medications in a population with many health care needs.
期刊介绍:
Health Affairs is a prestigious journal that aims to thoroughly examine significant health policy matters both domestically and globally. Our publication is committed to addressing issues that are relevant to both the private and public sectors. We are enthusiastic about inviting private and public decision-makers to contribute their innovative ideas in a publishable format. Health Affairs seeks to incorporate various perspectives from industry, labor, government, and academia, ensuring that our readers benefit from the diverse viewpoints within the healthcare field.