WomanSpace Philadelphia is a residential treatment program for dually-diagnosed, chronically homeless women. The ten-bed facility includes services addressing drug and alcohol addiction, mental illness recovery, life skills, and parenting skills. Individual and group therapy is provided in an intimate home-like setting, with the ultimate objective being reintegration after a 9- to 12-month treatment stay.
A program of Resources for Human Development, WomanSpace Philadelphia is also part of Philadelphia’s Journey of Hope Project, established in 2007 to help people with a history of chronic homelessness and co-occurring disorders. Through Journey of Hope, WomanSpace residents obtain apartments in the community after successful completion of treatment. They are also connected to outpatient (OP) or intensive outpatient (IOP) continuing care at treatment organizations located close to their new apartments.
A recent NIATx change project at WomanSpace Philadelphia focused on promoting residents’ stability post-discharge from the program. The specific change project aim was to increase the number of residents who attended their intake session for
At the start of the change project, the follow-up to continuing care was 67.7%.
Their PDSA Cycle for the WomanSpace change team included making discharge plans weeks in advance and beginning the outpatient program immediately upon discharge. Residents attended intake at the new outpatient treatment provider in the morning, then returned to WomanSpace to attend their transition ceremony.
With this change, the follow-up to continuing care rate improved to 100%.
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