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| "Outreach Makes Inroads" |
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The Challenge
The Connecticut State Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) and the Department of Children and Family Services (DCF) jointly funded Project SAFE to serve as a centralized system that provides priority access to evaluation and treatment for individuals experiencing substance abuse problems. While the system did indeed expedite the process for clients who were already fully willing and able to seek help, more was needed to remove the obstacles that continued to stop many individuals and families from seeking help in the first place.
The Opportunity
Analyzing the situation, sponsors recognized that some Project SAFE clients had demonstrated a significant history of failure to connect with evaluation and/or treatment services because of persistent difficulties managing some of the personal, logistical, and financial aspects of their daily lives. Was there a way to deliver case management services more holistically to Project SAFE clients?
The Solution
The Outreach and Engagement Program (OEP) was added to Project SAFE in Hartford and New Haven. Case workers helped clients and their families across a wide spectrum of challenges, resolving childcare and family medical care concerns, addressing employment and housing issues, obtaining benefits for which they were qualified, handling budgeting and transportation problems, and connecting with women’s groups and other community-based resources.
The Outcome
The goal was to increase the likelihood that Project SAFE clients would actually complete the substance abuse evaluation process and engage in recommended treatment services. To date, about 95 percent of clients involved in O&E services have been successfully connected with treatment providers. |
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