Access: The TAC Blog

A Nevada Community Mobilizes to End Youth Homelessness

In 2017, Southern Nevada tallied the third highest rate of unaccompanied youth homelessness in the nation. Recognizing the urgent need for a dedicated response to this crisis, the community, which includes the city of Las Vegas, issued a national request for technical assistance proposals. Through this competitive process, TAC was selected to facilitate a robust and inclusive planning effort, and ultimately to draft the first-ever Southern Nevada Plan to End Youth Homelessness.

From April to October 2018, TAC consultants Lauren Knott, Ellen Fitzpatrick, and Ashley Mann-McLellan worked with the community to create decision-making groups, analyze data to identify areas of need, articulate goals and strategies, and strengthen the active involvement of "Young Adults in Charge" (the Southern Nevada Homeless Continuum of Care's official Youth Action Board) in guiding the development of the Plan.

This engagement culminated in a Summit to End Youth Homelessness, a packed and lively event at which the Plan was officially launched. Rounding out presentations by members of the planning group, TAC consultants facilitated brainstorming sessions for Summit participants on implementation of the Plan, focusing on next steps with identified strategies. Service providers, educators, law enforcement, policymakers, funders, faith groups, and business leaders were all in attendance, demonstrating this community's broad commitment to the shared goal of ending youth homelessness in Southern Nevada.

Meeting the Challenge of Expanding Access to Integrated Physical Health and Addiction Care

With support from the Melville Charitable Trust, TAC Senior Consultant John O'Brien assembled teams of experts to produce two new papers exploring the ways care integration is being practiced - and paid for - in a rapidly changing U.S. health care environment.

Rather than searching for a uniform set of requisite elements in the integration of substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and mainstream medical care, the authors of "Integrating Substance Use Disorder Treatment & Mainstream Medical Care: Four Ground-Level Experiences" decided to showcase a few very different groups of providers that have each moved in this direction. In each case, they asked the same key questions, including "What is the context in which your integrated care effort occurred?" "Why and how did the shift to integrated care come about?" and "What more should we know about integrated care?" A condensed version of this paper was published on the AcademyHealth Blog.

From 2000 to 2014, the rate of deaths in the U.S. from drug overdoses increased by 137 percent, yet access to treatment services for people with SUDs continues to lag. Expanding the capacity of primary care providers to assess and treat addiction is critical to filling this gap, especially given the stigma associated with seeking treatment in specialty settings. "Exploring Value-Based Payment to Encourage Substance Use Disorder Treatment in Primary Care," a joint publication project with the Center for Health Care Strategies, describes how several states and health plans are exploring value-based payment to promote SUD treatment in primary care, and offers considerations for others who might want to implement these models.

TAC Staff in Action

STAFF ACTIVITIES

Executive Director Kevin Martone moderated a plenary panel on "The Health of Housing: State and Community-Based Approaches" at the National Association of Medicaid Directors' fall conference (to see the panel, start at about 31:00), delivered the keynote address at the 20th anniversary gathering of the Supportive Housing Association of New Jersey, and led a workshop on Mainstream Housing Choice Vouchers at the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) conference; Senior Consultant John O'Brien has been named a distinguished adviser at the Pew Charitable Trusts and was recently interviewed by Pew on "How Health Care Payers Can Help Stem the Opioid Crisis"; Subcontractor Naomi Sweitzer led a well-attended event to promote the homeless preference in multifamily housing, held at Austin (TX) City Hall and hosted by Mayor Steve Adler; Associate Ashley Mann-McLellan facilitated workshops and leadership conversations with the Suburban Cook County (IL) CoC on maximizing the impact of rapid re-housing to end homelessness; Ashley also volunteered at Boston's annual Surge to End Chronic Homelessness event; Senior Consultant Jim Yates, Associate Phil Allen, and other partners from the Rural Supportive Housing Initiative traveled to Fairbanks, AK to help the community establish new permanent supportive housing units and house more families and individuals through a robust rapid re-housing program.