Headline
A tool helps providers capture essential information when interviewing people experiencing unsheltered homelessness to support effective treatment planning.
Context
There are unique complexities to the daily realities of people who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness and providers need to understand these realities to develop the most effective, person-centered treatment plans for this population. This tool provides a framework for gathering self-reported social, medical, and behavioral health histories from this population.
Findings
The tool is organized under an acronym (HOUSE BEDS) to ensure critical information is captured in a standardized approach:
- H- Homelessness: History with homelessness and patient’s definition of homelessness
- O- Outreach: Other individuals/organizations engaged with the patient outside
- U- Utilization: Engagement with the health care, social services, and judicial systems
- S- Salary/income: Existing financial resources
- E- Eat: Access to and frequency of food intake
- D- Drink: Access to and frequency of clean water intake
- B- Bathroom: Access to toilet
- E- Encampment: Sleeping environment
- D- Daily routine: Patient’s daily routine (to support provider care and outreach)
- S- Substance use: History and current use of substances, including overdose
Takeaways
In combination with a trauma-informed and person-centered approach, any provider (e.g., doctors, nurses, social workers, outreach workers) can use this tool to gather comprehensive histories of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness to design more effective, reality-based treatment plans. The tool can also be used to interview people experiencing sheltered homelessness, though certain sections that are less relevant may be omitted.
