Gracepoint's Access Point (GAP) program will serve individuals who are homeless with mental health and / or substance use disorders. - Mental Health Care, Inc. (d/b/a Gracepoint) proposes an integrated evidenced-based program, “Gracepoint’s Access Point (GAP)”, to “bridge the gap” and serve individuals who are homeless or chronically homeless with co-occurring disorders (COD) and support the integration of behavioral health treatment and services, permanent housing and critical services, including health care, for individuals and families experiencing homelessness. This application requests $291,678 a year for each of three years, totaling $875,034.
The purpose of the proposed program is to provide a familiar place (access point) to support those individuals who have lived on the streets or a place not meant for human habitat for over one year or three episodes in a four year period and have substance use disorders, serious mental illness, serious emotional disturbance, or co-occurring mental and substance use disorders. GAP is a means of empowering consumers to take control of their own recovery; provide a safe place where individuals receive respect, encouragement, and hope that encourages and strengthens their recovery with mental illness, addiction and / or trauma. GAP will provide:
1) behavioral health and other recovery-oriented services;
2) linkage to housing and services that support the implementation and/or enhance the long-term sustainability of integrated community systems that provide permanent housing and supportive services to the target population; and
3) efforts to engage and connect clients who experience SUDs or CODs to enrollment resources for health insurance, Medicaid, and mainstream benefits programs.
Participants will be identified through the homeless services intake system and prioritized through the needs assessment and severity ranking system incorporated into the Tampa Hillsborough Homeless Initiatives (THHI) Homeless Management Information System. This program will serve 400 individuals annually who are homeless or chronically homeless on the path to housing. The program participants will be engaged in supportive employment, developing and implementing their own Wellness Recovery Action Plan and participate in recovery activities. The individual will be engaged for up to a year or more as program participant and/ or volunteers. GAP is a community-driven resource that will promote recovery, increase independence, and encourage community inclusion for persons with co-occurring disorders through education, consumer-run programming, support, and empowerment.
Gracepoint will serve as grant administrator and provider and provide data collection and mandatory contract reporting.
