Caduceus Outreach Services

Programs: Caduceus Outreach Services provides psychiatric treatment specifically designed to serve homeless people with disabling psychiatric illness. Our services are guided by principles of dignity, compassion, integrity and responsiveness, and provided without judgment or blame. We adopt an a non-traditional approach which combines compassionate, client-centered psychiatric treatment, intensive case management and direct social supports, and the advocacy, education and policy work required to change the social structures and conditions that circumscribe and further damage the lives of homeless people with disabling psychiatric illness. 1. Psychiatric Treatment A dedicated team of pro bono psychiatrists makes psychiatric treatment possible for our clients. We provide this treatment free of charge in private offices in our drop-in center, a welcoming, non-clinical and accessible place for homeless mentally ill people. We ensure that all of our clients have access to front line medications, regardless of their ability to pay. Our psychiatrists maintain their commitment to us for years, which fosters trust and builds a strong therapeutic alliance. 2. Intensive Social Supports Because we know that homeless people cannot reconstruct their lives through psychiatric treatment alone, we also provide our clients with a full range of other services. We are able to obtain disability income and medical insurance for our clients, help obtain and maintain housing, ensure that our clients are not discriminated against or evicted by their landlord because of their disabilities, assist with legal and criminal justice issues, and establish links to primary health care and provide therapy/counseling to support life change plans. We provide all services on a drop-in basis, to ensure that our clients will not be limited by unrealistic or competing time constraints. We accompany our clients to any appointment where they may need additional support, expertise to navigate bureaucratic barriers, or direct advocacy with medical, legal or other systems that can be intimidating.3. Advocacy, policy work and public educationA strong advocacy component is critical to our work, because while we provide services that help individual lives, we know that only policy and education work can challenge and change the conditions that limit the lives of mentally ill homeless people. We believe that stigma is part of the reason that this population has been neglected, ignored and demonized, and that treatment and housing have been in acute shortage for years. The stigma of psychiatric illness is nowhere more evident than in the disproportionate cuts to the mental health programs in publicly funded health budgets. Without systemic change, the response to homeless people with psychiatric illness will be criminalization, not treatment. Working collectively with other community-based organizations, public health care providers, advocates, consumers of mental health services and concerned and responsive politicians, we have created positive change in public health policy, police practices, legal systems, social services and treatment systems that homeless people with psychiatric illness must relay on and interact with daily. We know that this change must be ongoing, and we are dedicated to ensuring that the lives of people with disabling psychiatric illness are not further compromised by unjust, negligent or discriminating practices in the systems charged with meeting their needs.