View source for Integrated facility offers seamless care to Denver's homeless: new facility merges primary care and behavioral health delivery

== Introduction ==
The best way to integrate behavioral health with physical health is to gather the providers into one clinical space where the comprehensive health experience can be delivered seamlessly for patients. This fall, the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless did just that when it opened the Stout Street Health Center. The 50,000 square foot, multiservice center replaces an aging site and allows care teams to provide broader assistance for the homeless in Denver

== Background ==
The health center can serve up to 18,000 individuals per year. Previously, the group of providers treated 12,000 unique patients, with some 2,400 of those accessing mental health or SUD services, according to Elizabeth Cookson, MD, Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, who is the coalitions director of psychiatry.says the existing EHR system has helped in care coordination efforts, and providers will be able to continue to leverage the shared data. Workflows made it possible to deliver coordinated care within patient privacy regulations.
A homless patient main concern is where his next meal or place to sleep will be and therefore it becomes vey important to be able to attend to them when possible and in a holistic manner. the idea of intergrating menatl helat with physical helath makes perfect sense since this two areas are more than related, they actally affect teh oucomes of one another.
== Results ==
To achieve cohesion the denver clinic created a  team-based clinical delivery system that included  cubical areas where the behavioral and medical staff are side-by-side. the entry to mental health services is through primary health care. the services being in same area reduce the time at which the clients would have waited to be seen by either teams.
== Conclusion == 
Apart from reducing the the chances of loosing the homeless patinent , given the migratory nature of a homeless person, their seems to be a finacial benefit as the organization is able to combine services and acquire funds.
== Comments ==
It is  about time the clinicians realised that the health of an individual is whole and should be treated as such especially when it comes to homeless patients, in this enviroment,  we can actually see how mental health affects the phsical health.

== Reference ==

http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxyhost.library.tmc.edu/ps/i.do?p=HRCA&u=txshracd2509&id=GALE|A393209949&v=2.1&it=r&sid=summon&userGroup=txshracd2509&authCount=1

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