Objective

California's full-service partnerships (FSPs) provide a combination of subsidized permanent housing and multidisciplinary team-based services with a focus on rehabilitation and recovery. The goal of the study was to examine whether participation in FSPs is associated with changes in health service use and costs compared with usual care.

Methods

A quasi-experimental, pre-post, intent-to-treat design with a propensity score-matched contemporaneous control group was used to compare health service use and costs among 10,231 FSP clients and 10,231 matched clients with serious mental illness who were receiving public mental health services in California from January 1, 2004, through June 30, 2010.

Results

Among FSP participants, the mean annual number of mental health outpatient visits increased by 55.5, and annual mental health costs increased by $11,725 relative to the matched control group. Total service costs increased by $12,056.

Conclusions

Participation in an FSP was associated with increases in outpatient visits and their associated costs. As supportive housing programs are implemented nationally and on a large scale, these programs will likely need to be more effectively designed and targeted in order to achieve reductions in costly inpatient services.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined variation in the implementation of Californias Full Service Partnerships (FSPs), which are supported housing programs that do whatever it takes to improve outcomes among persons with serious mental illness who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. DATA SOURCES/SETTING: Ninety-three FSPs in California. STUDY DESIGN: A mixed methods approach was selected to develop a better understanding of the complexity of the FSP programs. The design structure was a combined explanatory and exploratory sequential design (qual→QUAN→qual) where a qualitative focus group was used to develop a quantitative survey that was followed by qualitative site visits. The survey was used to describe the breadth of variation based on fidelity to the Housing First model, while the site visits were used to provide a depth of information on high- versus low-fidelity programs. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We found substantial variation in implementation among FSPs. Fidelity was particularly low along domains related with housing and service philosophy, indicating that many FSPs implemented a rich array of services but applied housing readiness requirements and did not adhere to consumer choice in housing. CONCLUSIONS: There remains room for improvement in the recovery-orientation of FSPs. Fortunately, we have identified several processes by which program managers and counties can increase the fidelity of their programs.

Objective

Permanent supportive housing (PSH) programs are being implemented throughout the United States. This study examined the relationship between fidelity to the Housing First model and health service use among clients in PSH programs in California.

Methods

Data from a survey of PSH program practices were merged with administrative data on service utilization to examine the association between fidelity to a benchmark program, the Housing First model, and health service use among 5,067 clients in 77 PSH programs. Regression analyses were used to compare inpatient, crisis and residential, and outpatient mental health service use between high-, mid-, and low-fidelity programs in a pre-post design.

Results

During the preenrollment period, clients in mid- and high-fidelity PSH programs, compared with low-fidelity programs, used inpatient and crisis and residential services more but used outpatient mental health services less. Postenrollment, patients in high-fidelity programs showed the largest increase in the number of outpatient visits, followed by clients in mid- and low-fidelity programs: 71.6 versus 48.2 and 29.0, respectively.

Conclusions

Clients in housing programs with higher fidelity to the Housing First model had greater increases in outpatient visits. Compared with lower-fidelity programs, higher-fidelity programs also enrolled clients who used fewer mental health outpatient services in the year before enrollment. Higher-fidelity programs may be more effective than lower-fidelity programs in increasing outpatient service utilization and in their outreach to and engagement of clients who are not appropriately served by the public mental health system.