Programs
We implement our programs through our structured delivery system that is designed to empower and equip residents to meet the myriad of daily social, economic, and educational challenges confronting them. We target those who are at highest risk, such as those having a substance use history which has led to difficulties in many areas of their lives including family, work, legal, social, and spiritual issues. We do this through four basic initiatives:
Transitional, Supportive Housing
A key service of House of Patience is to provide help to mothers with children. Our facility is a private house that operates under a drug free atmosphere. The length of stay ranges from 60-180 days depending on the resident’s specific needs and criteria.
A major focus of our program is providing trauma informed care to our residents using The Sanctuary Model.® This model represents a theory-based, trauma-informed, evidence-supported, whole culture approach that has a clear and structured methodology for creating or changing an organizational culture.
The objective of such a change is to more effectively provide a cohesive context within which healing from psychological and social traumatic experience can be addressed. The Sanctuary Model uses SAGE (Safety, Affect Management, Grieving, and Emancipation) to provide a staged model for the treatment of trauma.
As an organizational culture intervention, it is designed to facilitate the development of structures, processes, and behaviors on the part of staff, clients and the community-as-a-whole that can counteract the biological, affective, cognitive, social, and existential wounds suffered by the victims of traumatic experience and extended exposure to adversity.
Medication Assistance
Many people who come to HOP are individuals who are addicted to drugs and alcohol and want to recover. These clients tend to be homeless, uneducated, unemployed and have given up on themselves. While focusing on traditional addiction treatment, we also address the underlying core issues, which, if untreated, drive our clients to the escape they are looking for in drug abuse and alcoholism.
HOP provides medication assistance treatment based on consumer needs and diagnosis. We believe that chemical dependency is a complex bio-psychosocial problem requiring varied and often multiple interventions for recovery. Primarily, we utilize a consistent daily routine that teaches our clients basic life skills, teambuilding, and self-discipline. Through holistic principles of transformation, individuals take part in the treatment process as full partners and not just as clients.
Additionally, we are able to help navigate the departments of Health and Human Services, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH), Office of Homeless Services, Department of Human Services (DHS), Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS), and the Mayor’s Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity (CEO), to provide a wide range of health and social services to meet the needs of our residents. These include support for public health, ambulatory health, substance abuse, mental health, child welfare, juvenile justice, homeless prevention and emergency services and supportive housing.
Peer-to-Peer Mentoring & Assistance
Our Peer-to-Peer Mentoring & Assistance program is focused on holistic wellness, addressing issues of self-esteem, substance abuse, workforce readiness, education, credit repair, life skills, and self-empowerment. We take a buddy-approach to all of our work, and each client is assigned/matched with a mentor, someone who has been in the program for a while, or who has completed our program.
Our case managers use a strengths-based approach in which we focus on the positive talents and attributes of each individual client. The strengths-based practice is a research-based approach to social work that has proven success with a variety of clients, including but not limited to those in substance abuse treatment and clients with Limited English Proficiency. During the case management process, each client creates an individualized action plan designed to address barriers and support the achievement of personal goals.
Homeless persons are often experiencing a repeating cycle of crisis, one in which it can be hard to remain stable in life. To break the cycle of crisis, HOP addresses issues in several areas of life. To help prepare our residents for permanent housing, we teach them how to be a good neighbor, how to improve general life skills such as budgeting and cleaning, and how to develop workforce skills such as interviewing, resume writing and positive workplace behavior.
We also help our residents access educational resources, if needed, to improve their marketability in the job market. Finally, case managers work hand in hand with our residents to help them with their housing search, which can include referrals to affordable housing providers.
Suicide Prevention & Support
We believe in a cognitive–behavioral psychotherapy program designed for patients who might have attempted or thought of suicide. The intervention teaches patients skills to use alternative ways of thinking and behaving during episodes of suicidal crises and assists them in building a network of mental health services and social supports to prevent future suicide attempts. It is designed to be provided by individual therapists on a one-to-one basis.
Although we do not provide therapy ourselves, we refer teens and adults who might need it to licensed therapists, all who must have a master’s degree and must either be a licensed mental health provider or work under the supervision of a licensed mental health provider.
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The brief therapy typically includes 10 to 16 structured sessions (the number of sessions is flexible depending on the needs of the patient) and consists of three phases: early, middle, and late. The early phase of treatment introduces patients to the intervention and the cognitive model. During this phase, the therapist conducts a narrative interview of a recent suicidal crisis. Based on the narrative interview, the therapist and patient work together to develop a list of problems and goals for therapy. Early interventions in this phase also include a collaborative development of a Safety Plan and Hope Kit.
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The middle phase of treatment focuses on teaching the patient cognitive and behavioral skills to manage suicidal thoughts, prevent suicidal behavior, and to address other treatment goals. Typical strategies include cognitive restructuring, coping cards, problem-solving, behavioral activation, and distress tolerance skills. The later phase of treatment focuses on skill consolidation, relapse prevention, and preparing patients for the end of treatment. The average time needed to implement such a program as designed is between 6 months to 1 year.
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In addition, we provide training and education by way of community workshops for adults as well as school-based discussions for youth throughout the year.
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