David W. Havens

This book provides social workers, outreach clinicians, case managers, and concerned community members with a pretreatment guide for assisting homeless couples, youth, and single adults. The inter-relationship between Homeless Outreach and Housing First is examined in detail to inform program development and hands on practice. Pretreatment Guide for Homeless Outreach & Housing First shares five detailed case studies from the field to elucidate effective ways of helping and to demonstrate how the most vulnerable among us can overcome trauma and homelessness. Readers will: Expand their assessment skills and discover new interventions for helping people who have experienced long-term or chronic homelessness. Understand and be able to integrate the stages of common language construction with their own practice. Learn about the positive measurable impact of a Housing First approach and its moral, fiscal, and quality of life implications. Understand how to better integrate program policy and supervision with Homeless Outreach & Housing First initiatives. Learn how to utilize a Pretreatment Approach with couples, youth, and unaccompanied adults experiencing untreated major mental illness and addiction. "Jay S. Levy's book is essential reading to both people new to the movement to end homelessness and folks who have been in the trenches for many years. Learn how to do effective outreach with the chronic homeless population, and the ins and outs of the Housing First model. The personal stories and the success cases will give inspiration to work even harder to help both individuals and for ending homelessness in your community." Michael Stoops, Director of Community Organizing National Coalition for the Homeless, Washington, DC Learn more at www.JaySLevy.com Another empowering book from Loving Healing Press www.LovingHealing.com

On any given night, there are over 643,000 homeless people residing in shelters and on the streets across America. What can we do to help? "Levy crafts stories of characters who sear the memory: Old Man Ray, the World War II veteran who resents the VA system and regards himself as the de facto night watchman at Port Authority; Ben who claims to be a prophet disowned in his own country, crucified by the government and enslaved by poverty finds a bridge to the mainstream services and a path to housing through the common language of religious metaphors, including redemption and forgiveness; and Andrew who has been 'mentally murdered' is helped to understand his own situation and gain disability benefits through the language of trauma; among others. These stories are deftly interwoven with theory and practice as Levy constructs his developmental model of the engagement and pretreatment process. The outreach worker strives to understand the language and the culture of each homeless individual, builds a bridge to the mainstream services, and helps those providers to understand the special circumstances of these vulnerable people. Levy bears witness to the courage of these pilgrims who wander the streets of our cities, and his poignant book is a testament to the healing power of trusting and enduring relationships." --Jim O'Connell, MD - President and Street Physician for Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program The reader will... Experience moving real life stories that demystify homeless outreach and its central objectives and challenges. Learn about effective strategies of outreach & engagement with under-served populations. Understand and be able to utilize the stages of common language construction in your own practice. Learn about pretreatment principles and their applications with persons experiencing untreated major mental illness, addiction, and medical issues. Discover new interventions via outreach counseling, advocacy and case management with people experiencing long-term or chronic homelessness. Understand how to better integrate policy, programs (e.g. Housing First), and supervision with homeless outreach initiatives. About the Author Jay S. Levy, LICSW has spent the last 20 years working with individuals who experience homelessness. He has developed new programs and provided clinical staff supervision. Jay is one of the architects to the Regional Engagement and Assessment for Chronically Homeless Housing program (REACH). This was adopted by the Western Massachusetts Regional Network as an innovative approach toward reducing chronic homelessness. Learn more at www.JaySLevy.com From the New Horizons in Therapy Series at Loving Healing Press www.LovingHealing.com SOC025000 Social Science: Social Work PSY010000 Psychology: Psychotherapy - Counseling POL002000 Political Science: Public Policy - City Planning & Urban Dev