CISWH Project Resources

If you have clients who are newly insured and need help understanding their policy, give them this guide as a resource: “Making the Most of Your Coverage”. The guide explains important insurance documents, key insurance terminology, understanding how to anticipate health care costs, knowing where to go for care, and how to make the most out of each doctor visit.

This toolkit is designed to provide resources to organizations to increase access to stable and permanent housing for people who are homeless or unstably housed, living with HIV, and who may have persistent mental illness and/or substance use disorders. It is primarily intended for Ryan White providers, medical case managers, peers/community health workers, and other “front-line staff” who provide direct services to individuals living with HIV who are experiencing homelessness.

On June 27, 2017, the grant recipients of the Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) funded initiative Building a Medical Home for Multiply Diagnosed HIV-Positive Homeless Populations convened a day-long meeting to present results to staff from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). They presented the strategies that collectively led to more than 1,300 people nationwide being served over the five-year initiative.

For a HRSA meeting on June 27, 2017, each SPNS demonstration site created a poster presentation outlining the model that was developed as part of the initiative Building a Medical Home for Multiply Diagnosed HIV-Positive Homeless Populations. Each poster includes findings, successes and challenges and next steps.

Each demonstration SPNS project has created a manual that outlines the model of care developed as part of the initiative Building a Medical Home for Multiply Diagnosed HIV-Positive Homeless Populations. These manuals, together with a multisite manual that provides an overview of the initiative, can be found at the link below.

The nine sites that participated in the initiative Building a Medical Home for Multiply Diagnosed HIV-Positive Homeless Populations created videos to show how their model of care improved the health and well-being of clients who were living with HIV and experiencing homelessness.

We have created a one-page overview of the medical home model used in the initiative Building a Medical Home for Multiply Diagnosed HIV-Positive Homeless Populations, both for the initiative overall and for each individual site.

Through interviews and focus groups, clinic and program staff from nine organizations nationwide provided insights about the role of patient navigators in building a medical home for people living with HIV who are homeless/unstably housed and co-diagnosed with substance use and/or mental health disorders. Results of this qualitative research are presented in this peer-reviewed article which will be published in the Journal of Public Health Management Practice and is available online ahead of print publication. Researchers identified ten key responsibilities of patient navigators as part of the HIV care team that seeks to engage this population in care and treatment. The article concludes that patient navigators may be a key component in creating an effective patient-centered medical home for this population.

As part of the initiative Building a Medical Home for Multiply Diagnosed HIV Homeless Populations, staff conducted a substudy on stigma. The goals of the study are to 1) understand and describe how stigma is manifested in individual’s experience 2) develop approaches and coping skills for clients who experience stigma and 3) create a medical home to reduce stigma and enhance access and quality of care. The team presented preliminary results at the Ryan White 2016 conference.

Using digital media to capture & share patient stories–As part of the initiative Building a Medical Home for Multiply Diagnosed HIV Homeless Populations, staff from nine HIV provider sites created digital stories demonstrating their clients’ experiences working with the initiative. In this presentation, staff from CAHPP and two demonstration sites shared lessons learned when creating these stories.