Housing First ACT Team

In response to the growing challenge of homelessness in Canada, the Mental Health Commission of Canada is sponsoring Research Development Projects on Mental Health and Homelessness. These projects will take place in five cities across Canada, including Vancouver, with services beginning in September 2009 and ending on March 31, 2013.

Each project is designed to answer questions about what services and supports best achieve housing stability and improved health and well-being for persons who are homeless and living with a serious mental illness.

In Vancouver, the research will also have a focus on people with a concurrent substance addiction. It will be conducted on four service models:

  • An Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team with rent supplements
  • An Intensive Case Management team with rent supplements
  • A staffed building with clinical and support services
  • The usual care provided in the community

RainCity Housing’s ACT team 

RainCity Housing’s role in the Vancouver Project Team is developing the ACT team. The ACT team is based on the Pathways to Housing model from New York which incorporates a ‘housing first’ approach into the Assertive Community Treatment model.

Housing first is a recovery-oriented supportive housing approach that offers homeless people living with a mental illness immediate access to rent supplements so they can live in the same kinds of apartments that are typically available to people that don’t have a mental illness.

The rent supplements are provided without requiring participation in psychiatric or substance use treatment and will be available to clients throughout the course of the project. Self-determination, choice and harm reduction are at the centre of all considerations with respect to the provision of housing and ACT services.

ACT is a well researched evidence-based transdisciplinary model that includes a broad array of clinical and support services. The team will support 100 clients at a client-staff ratio of 10:1. 80% of the work will occur in the community and crisis support is available seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Program staff are closely involved in hospital admissions and discharges. Clients will be randomly assigned to the ACT team by the research team.

You can reach our ACT Team at: 604.675.2390  

Recruitment

Return to our website in the upcoming weeks as we update the job postings for this unique program.

Jobs available will include nurses, peer specialist, psychiatrist, addiction specialists, vocational specialist, Community Integration Specialists and possibly a nurse practitioner and/or occupational therapist.