Transitioning into the Community: Outcomes of a Pilot Housing Program for Forensic Patients

Abstract

The Transitional Rehabilitation Housing Pilot (TRHP) was designed to transition hospitalized forensic patients to the community. Twenty clients and their clinicians in two Ontario cities completed measures on functioning, substance use, recovery, social support, and quality of life at admission to the program and then every 6 months until 18 months post-admission. Clients also responded to open-ended questions on the impact of the program and living in the community on their recovery. Three (15%) clients re-offended. Eleven clients (55%) experienced rehospitalization; however, brief rehospitalization was seen as part of the recovery process. Level of community functioning was stable across time and 35% of clients had a decrease in the restrictiveness of their disposition order. Clients described numerous characteristics of community living that contributed to improvements in functioning, such as integration into the community, social contact, and newfound independence. Some aspects of TRHP that encouraged recovery included developing new skills and knowledge, staff support, and the programming that engaged clients in treatment and recovery-oriented activities. Findings suggest that forensic patients can transition successfully into the community with appropriate support and housing.

New Frontiers for Conditional Release: Applying Lessons Learned from Other Offenders with Mental Illness

“…Parker stated, “the coordinated provision of high‐frequency services by a multidisciplinary team is the hallmark of an effective ACT team, and may have been an important factor in the success of the [conditional release] program” (p. 302). Cherner et al ( supported Parker's findings by showing that a FACT model with transitional housing in Ontario was especially beneficial for insanity acquittees, with participants reporting increased integration into the community and improved social contact.…”

Transitional housing in forensic mental health: considering consumer lived experience

“…Transitional housing has been utilized in practice with a wide variety of clinical and non-clinical populations including persons with serious and persistent mental illness, veterans, criminal justice system offenders, and homeless persons (Brown & Wilderson, 2010; Cherner, Aubry, Ecker, Kerman, & Nandlal, 2014; Tsai, Rosenheck, & McGuire, 2012; Yu, 2010). It is difficult to compare various approaches, however, as specific design and operation of transitional housing supports can vary markedly from region to region or in response to the unique populations served.…”

A Description of the Forensic Monitoring System of the Missouri Department of Mental Health

“…Supportive housing programs for consumers on forensic release would seem to be an important consideration, but there is a paucity of literature on this topic (Cherner et al, ). A report from King County, Washington (Rowe & Chembukha, ) described a recent program to house forensic consumers, but these consumers consisted of “homeless” defendants found permanently incompetent to stand trial and “homeless military veterans” with mental disorders in jails.…”

“…A report from King County, Washington (Rowe & Chembukha, ) described a recent program to house forensic consumers, but these consumers consisted of “homeless” defendants found permanently incompetent to stand trial and “homeless military veterans” with mental disorders in jails. Cherner et al () did remark upon some studies purporting to address supportive housing for forensic consumers but noted that these studies either dealt with consumers transitioning to a residential treatment setting rather than community housing, or did not deal exclusively with subjects on conditional release from a forensic hospital setting. They noted that “No research to date has examined the outcomes of forensic patients who moved from hospital to transitional housing in the community, followed by supported housing (i.e., housing with support off‐site rather [than] on‐site)” (p. 63).…”