The Allegheny Initiative for Mental Health Integration for the Homeless: Integrating Heterogeneous Health Services for Homeless Persons

The Allegheny Initiative for Mental Health Integration for the Homeless (AIM-HIGH) was a 3-year urban initiative in Pennsylvania that sought to enhance integration and coordination of medical and behavioral services for homeless persons through system-, provider-, and client-level interventions. On a system level, AIM-HIGH established partnerships between several key medical and behavioral health agencies. On a provider level, AIM-HIGH conducted 5 county-wide conferences regarding homeless integration, attended by 637 attendees from 72 agencies. On a client level, 5 colocated medical and behavioral health care clinics provided care to 1986 homeless patients in 4084 encounters, generating 1917 referrals for care. For a modest investment, AIM-HIGH demonstrated that integration of medical and behavioral health services for homeless persons can occur in a large urban environment. (Authors)

Publication Date: 
2007
Pages: 
401-405
Volume: 
97
Issue: 
3
Journal Name: 
American Journal of Public Health