From hospital to housing, with a little help from friends

September 21, 2022

For the past three years, St. Patrick Center, a program of Catholic Charities Archdiocese of St. Louis, and BJC HealthCare have shown positive outcomes for unhoused clients by providing wraparound services to reduce emergency department and inpatient utilization and stabilize lives. The goal is to continue to provide services and expand to 40 patients needing mental health, substance use, medical and housing services to help reduce the burden on our emergency care system.

To that end, St. Patrick Center, BJC HealthCare and Behavioral Health Network received notice recently that they had been awarded $800,000 in federal funds to continue their partnership and services to some of the community’s most vulnerable members. These clients are considered “super utilizers” of the emergency department at BJC and usually suffer from co-occurring and comorbidity issues.

These funds will allow us to extend and expand our work providing housing and stabilization services to some of our most vulnerable community members

“St. Patrick Center, working alongside Behavioral Health Network and BJC HealthCare, has proven that our Hospital to Housing model not only improves lives, but saves lives by providing critical services to vulnerable community members,” said Jonathan Belcher, senior director of programs, long-term transformation, at St. Patrick Center. “Many of the patients we serve are those who have fallen through the cracks, and it’s our job to help mend those cracks.”

Belcher attributed the recent awarding of federal funds – one of 10 awards made through the office of Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) to support community project initiatives in her district – to the “immediate and long-lasting positive outcomes” for both the hospital and clients of the Hospital to Housing model.