Project STAR (Screening, Treatment, Assessment, and Referral) - Samaritan Daytop Village proposes Project STAR (Screening, Treatment, Assessment, and Recovery), which will offer behavioral health services to 420 single adult homeless women who experience serious mental illness (SMI) and/or substance use disorders (SUD) in Queens, NY. Project participants will be connected to community-based treatment and recovery supports and engage in mental health supports and case management at the shelter where they reside. Project STAR addresses the unmet needs of homeless women with SMI/SUD who are placed in a general population homeless shelter, rather than a specialized shelter that would address their need for connections to behavioral healthcare and recovery supports, which in turn are a prerequisite for transitioning into sustainable permanent housing. Samaritan Daytop Village (SDV) will serve women who are residents of two general population shelters, which are operated by SDV in a low-income, underserved neighborhood in Queens, NY. The shelter population represents marginalized populations of color: 74% of shelter residents identify as Black, 17% as Hispanic/Latina, 5% as White/Non-Hispanic, 4% as other. The average age of shelter residents is 45 years old, and less than 2% identify as transgender. In Year 1, SDV will serve 60 clients, and 90 in each of Years 2-5, for a total of 420 participants. Funding will enable SDV to enhance shelter services through 1 FTE Project Director (a licensed clinician who will spend half their time on direct service delivery), 1 FTE licensed BH Specialist, 2 FTE credentialed Peer Specialists, and 0.5 FTE Licensed Creative Arts Therapist. Project staff will conduct continuous outreach and engagement of women who have a diagnosis of SMI/SUD or show signs and symptoms of significant behavioral health issues. Enrolled participants will be assessed to determine treatment needs, preferences, strengths and resources, which will form the basis for the development of a collaborative service plan. The primary objective of Project STAR is to securely connect homeless women with SMI/SUD to trauma-informed, culturally competent, client-centered, evidence-based, and integrated mental health and SUD services through community-based providers. Based on each woman’s Service Plan, the project team will provide active referrals to ensure that clients have access to integrated and comprehensive care for mental health and SUD, including psychiatric evaluations, psychopharmacological and addiction medications as well as outpatient mental health and SUD treatment. Referrals may be made to SDV’s own licensed clinics, residential programs, recovery centers, and care coordination programs as well as those operated by SDV’s network of partners. Project STAR staff will further offer individual and group mental health and recovery support services to promote emotion regulation, wellness management, and trauma coping. Case management will address barriers to care and promote transition to community housing. Over the course of the project, 294 women will be connected to behavioral health care, and 250 women will have participated in psycho-education, skills-building, and other interventions for trauma coping, recovery, and wellness management as well as in peer recovery support services. As a result, 50-70% of women will report improved medication adherence, reduced depression, anxiety, aggression, and/or PTSD symptom severity, and 60% will have improved SUD status and overall functioning. A minimum of 40% of participants will maintain their connection to behavioral healthcare post-discharge and show improved housing status.
