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1993.04.20 :  Grants -- Homeless with Severe Mental Illness

Contact:  Public Health Service
Tuesday, April 20, 1993                 Teddi Pensinger
                                             (301) 443-2792

       HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala and Housing and Urban
Development Secretary Henry Cisneros today announced that
approximately $17 million will be made available this year to
fund the first year cost of demonstration projects to care for
homeless individuals with severe mental illnesses, including
those who also have substance use disorders.    
     The money will be provided for a five-year national
demonstration program called Access to Community Care and
Effective Services and Supports (ACCESS) which seeks to integrate
fragmented services and thereby contribute to ending
homelessness.  
     About one-third of the homeless population are single adults
suffering from severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or
manic-depressive disorder.  A sizeable proportion of the homeless
severely mentally ill population--estimated at one-half or more--
also abuse alcohol and/or other drugs.  (On any given night, up
to 600,000 people are homeless.)
     ACCESS creates incentives to improve the integration of
existing federal, state, local and voluntary services to homeless
people.  The grants will test alternative approaches to the
development of an integrated system to improve the availability,
quality and comprehensiveness of services, as well as to evaluate
the effectiveness of these approaches.       

     Secretary Shalala said, "The last things that homeless
people need to encounter are cumbersome, uncoordinated
bureaucracies.  ACCESS is an attempt to cut through the
complexities and deliver services to people who badly need it." 
     "This program has enormous potential to serve as a model for
the nation," said Secretary Cisneros.  "I am particularly pleased
that so many different components of our government collaborated
to create it."  
     HHS and HUD worked with the Departments of Labor, Education,
Agriculture and Veterans Affairs to establish the ACCESS program. 
     The resulting interdepartmental effort will provide funds to
states and communities to develop and test integrated systems of
treatment, supportive services and housing for the target
population.  The program will be administered by the Center for
Mental Health Services, a component of the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration within the U.S. Public
Health Service.  
     All state mental health authorities are eligible to apply
for funding.  Awards for this year will be made in September.  
     Funds will be awarded through "cooperative agreements," that
allow the federal government to play an active role in program
implementation and evaluation. 
     SAMHSA Acting Administrator Elaine M. Johnson said that
coordination of care is essential to address the multiple and 
diverse needs of individuals who are not only homeless, but also
have severe mental illness and abuse alcohol and/or other drugs.

     Frank Sullivan, acting director of the Center for Mental
Health Services, said, "ACCESS is a prototype of the kind of
effort that is needed nationally, and demonstrates the federal
commitment toward stimulating community organizations to work
with each other to eliminate service delivery barriers." 
     The ACCESS program is designed to provide information on how
to organize and deliver services in an integrated fashion to
homeless, mentally ill individuals.  ACCESS was originally
recommended by the Federal Task Force on Homelessness and Severe
Mental Illness, whose members are representatives of federal
departments that are directly involved in efforts to improve the
lives of homeless severely mentally ill people.

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