CSO, Friends of the Homeless Secure $2M Grant to Expand Mental Healthcare

NORTHAMPTON — Clinical & Support Options (CSO) has been awarded $2M from the Grants for the Benefit of Homeless Individuals (GBHI) program, a project of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMSHA) Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.

The GBHI program was created by SAMSHA “to support the development and/or expansion of local implementation of a community infrastructure that integrates behavioral-health treatment and services for substance-use disorders and co-occurring mental and substance-use disorders, permanent housing, and other critical services for individuals (including youth) and families experiencing homelessness.”

With this new award, CSO and its Friends of the Homeless program will initiate the Friends of the Homeless Integrated Treatment and Support (FOHITS) program to significantly expand and enhance service capacity in Springfield through the provision of trauma-informed addiction and mental-health treatment and recovery support services.

Specifically, CSO will support the FOHITS program for 100 chronically homeless individuals annually with the goals of providing outreach and engagement strategies to increase access to and participation in treatment; placing all participants in housing, leading to permanent housing stability; providing harm-reduction and recovery supports; engaging participants in a comprehensive range of mental-health services and trauma-informed treatment; and engaging and connecting clients to enrollment resources for health insurance, Medicaid, and mainstream benefits programs.

“As was our mutual vision when joining with Friends of the Homeless two years ago, this grant will further our efforts in streamlining the delivery of critical services to an already underserved and vulnerable population,” said Karin Jeffers, CEO of CSO. “With the proper resources in place, we can more effectively address the basic needs for those in our community experiencing homelessness and move them in a healthy direction.”

The grant award will be spread over a five-year period. The FOHITS program will serve 100 participants in the first year and an additional 100 in each year thereafter, for a total of 500 participants over the project duration.