The introduction of CalAIM’s housing-related services through Enhanced Care Management (ECM) and Community Supports has brought tremendous potential to support people experiencing homelessness as they transition to permanent housing and stable health. As counties, Continuums of Care, and service providers have worked to implement CalAIM (California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal) opportunities, they have become intimately aware of the many ways the cross-sector partnerships and processes needed to maximize these resources could be more effective.
A group of Continuum of Care representatives from across the state has been meeting monthly with Homebase, a national nonprofit working to prevent and end homelessness. They have identified ways in which ECM and CS are working and ways in which they can be improved.
In Recommendations to Improve Implementation of ECM & Community Supports for People Experiencing Homelessness (PDF), the group identified a list of enhancements that would strengthen communication and collaboration across the health and homeless systems of care to ensure people experiencing homelessness are better able to access and utilize critical CalAIM programs.
Their recommendations fall into three broad categories:
- Streamlined referrals and coordination
- Enhanced education, awareness, and training
- Improved data, metrics, and evaluation
This work was produced with CHCF support.
