From Homelessness to Home: Housing, Relationships, and Recovery- 5-5:30pm Twenty Years of INSIGHT FOR ALL: Long Term Psychotherapy with Homeless Adults - Deborah Luepnitz, PhD
- 5:30-6pm Housing as an Anchor in Psychosis: From Intensive Mobile Treatment to Supportive Housing, Providing Treatment Across the Housing Spectrum - Judith Katz, MD, Sadie Heald, LMSW
Twenty Years of INSIGHT FOR ALL: Long Term Psychotherapy with Homeless Adults - Deborah Luepnitz, PhD
Unhoused adults who choose to move into supportive housing often continue to struggle with what has been called "an unhoused mind." This talk will summarize 20+ years of pro bono treatment offered by a group of psychoanalytically oriented clinicians. Concepts about social factors from Frantz Fanon as well as analysts who worked closely with patients designated "psychotic" such as Donald Winnicott will be explored. Clinical vignettes will illustrate the promise and challenges of this work.
Housing as an Anchor in Psychosis: From Intensive Mobile Treatment to Supportive Housing, Providing Treatment Across the Housing Spectrum - Judith Katz, MD, Sadie Heald, LMSW
Mark Ragins has described a model of psychosis that proposes that changes in experiencing reality (cognitive processes) alone are not sufficient to create psychotic illness. Psychotic illness also requires a breakdown in self identity, and relationships (Ragins, 2021). Having a home can act as an anchor for cognitive processes, self identity and relationships. The Center for Urban Community Services (CUCS) is a social services agency in New York City that provides social services across a full spectrum of housing, from street outreach to permanent supportive housing. CUCS partners with Janian Medical Care to provide psychiatry, primary care, and social services in non-traditional settings with a goal of getting and keeping a home. In this panel, we describe two models of care at CUCS: Intensive Mobile Treatment (IMT) and Permanent Supportive Housing. Intensive Mobile Treatment is a model of care unique to NYC. A multidisciplinary team of peer specialists, case managers, psychiatrists, social workers and nurses work together to engage participants who have not thrived with other care models (Colton, 2023). Their difficulty with other care models is often partly related to unstable housing. IMT provides flexible engagement in an office setting or in the community and allows for continuity of relationships in situations that cause disruptions in other models, including long hospitalizations and incarcerations. Stable relationships with IMT act as a transitional anchor that stabilizes and improves the experiencing of reality, relationships and self identity and increase the likelihood of success in housing. Housing then acts as an additional anchor. CUCS Permanent Supportive Housing provides social services within buildings that have independent apartments. The services include groups that connect residents with one another and community resources, support with benefits, and employment services. Psychiatry and primary care services are also available onsite. Team members and a participant will share their experiences with these models including how these models have strengthened relationship networks, a sense of belonging in a community, a positive self identity and reduced negative effects of psychosis.
