Although many homeless people suffer from mental illnesses that impair their ability to seek and maintain housing, they are often not able to access psychiatric services in traditional treatment settings. PPOH addresses this access gap by placing on-site psychiatrists at community-based programs serving homeless or formerly homeless people providing an opportunity for consumers to access treatment that may enable them to seek and maintain housing, benefits and services. Many of New York City’s outreach teams, drop-in centers, homeless shelters and supportive housing programs are not able to afford psychiatric services nor are they equipped to recruit, support and supervise the psychiatrists who provide these services. PPOH provides an opportunity for psychiatrists to commit to community work in non-traditional settings that offers robust support and opportunities for professional development.

PPOH works in 50 programs throughout New York City providing psychiatric evaluation, treatment, education and technical assistance that both serves consumers directly and helps our partner programs to more effectively serve their mentally ill consumers. PPOH psychiatrists become part of each program’s service delivery team to ensure the full integration of their work with other services. PPOH relies on public and private support and fee for service revenue to provide these psychiatric services in as many settings as possible.

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