Evaluability Assessment of Discharge Planning and the Prevention of Homelessness: Final Report
Garrett Moran, Rafael Semansky, Elizabeth Quinn, Rebecca Noftsinger and Teresa Koenig
September 22, 2005
Past research has indicated that many people with severe mental illnesses and substance abuse problems who experience homelessness travel in “institutional circuits,” or move repeatedly through systems and institutions such as state psychiatric hospitals, jails and prisons, homeless shelters, and drug treatment programs. In 1994, the US Interagency Council on Homelessness identified inadequate discharge planning as a significant factor contributing to homelessness among persons with mental illnesses and/or substance use disorders. Although discharge planning is often recommended as a strategy to prevent homelessness among people released from institutions, very few studies have examined this strategy. The purpose of this study was to determine the evaluability of discharge planning as a strategy to prevent homelessness.