Biederman and Colleagues Receive Award from Duke Endowment

Congratulations to Donna Biederman, associate professor; and her colleagues Julia Gamble of the Duke Outpatient Clinic and Sally Wilson of Project Access Durham County on their award, “Safe Hospital Discharge Transitions for Homeless Patients with Opiate Risk or Addiction.” The grant is awarded from the Duke Endowment through the Department of Population Health.

Abstract:  Since 2016, the Durham Homeless Care Transitions (DHCT) program has provided safe post-hospital housing and care management for homeless individuals with medical needs. DHCT is a low barrier program without specific disease criteria. This provides flexibility to serve homeless individuals across the opiate abuse spectrum – from risk to addiction. The proposed project continues and expands the DHCT consultation service which provides hospital teams with expert advice regarding safe discharge of homeless patients. Medication compliance/safety, connection to primary care and mental health/substance abuse services, benefits acquisition and social supports are our major focus.

While our team does not directly provide opiate treatment services, we assist with connection to treatment and can leverage funding when needed. DHCT has close relationships with housing support and homeless services provides for patient stabilization through short term sober housing placement and referral to longer term options when available. Our goal is to create strong connection to ongoing supports for our vulnerable clients and to help them attain increased stability and quality of life. Through a robust program evaluation, we will assess self-reported health and self-efficacy and health care utilization patterns. Success will be measured by completion of the hospital discharge plan connection to outpatient services, and decreased hospital utilization. We anticipate increased knowledge among hospitalists and hospital discharge planners of the needs of homeless patients.