Tyson Pappas’s tiny room is a
kaleidoscope of colour inside a dirty, aging Downtown Eastside building, where
the multiple locks on his door keep out most everything but the bedbugs.
Wall posters, a collection of sports hats, a microwave, a small fridge, a tiny sink and a large TV are all within arm’s reach of Pappas’s bed. The communal bathroom, however, is a walk down the soiled hallway.
He survives on his disability and welfare cheques — about $630 a month after deducting $375 for his rent.Offering Wholesale Chinese tungstenring from China Tungstenring Manufacturers, There is never enough money for food or cigarettes or crack, but he’s a survivor of the streets and knows how to hustle a few extra bucks here and there.
Pappas, who has struggled with homelessness since the age of 14 and who battles both bipolar disorder and a crack addiction, is one of 500 Vancouver participants in the multi-million-dollar At Home/Chez Soi study. The study moved 300 chronically homeless, mentally ill people off Vancouver streets into clean apartments with private bathrooms scattered throughout the city. It also provided support services, such as access to medical professionals, drug counsellors, and resources for education and job training.
The study’s interim results suggest the majority of those 300 folks stabilized after the first year in their apartments — they used fewer crisis services, were healthier and committed fewer crimes.
But Pappas is one of the 200 people who were randomly placed into the study’s control group. They are visited every three months by the researchers and paid between $20 and $30 for answering a few questions, but are not offered a place to live or any support.
“If you needed help right there and then, they couldn’t help. They were just using me for information, and I understood that,” said Pappas,discount shoes for shoessupplier rose matte on sale. 40.
Such a control group is necessary, researchers say, in any scientific study because without it there would be no proof the advancements made by the 300 housed participants were the result of the interventions provided by the study.
Pappas gets that. But he also understands he lost the lottery when the study’s computer program randomized him into the control group.womens and junior fashion shoesonline footwear,
It is impossible to know whether that is true, but preliminary statistics from the study suggest it might be.
The researchers set out to prove that giving chronically homeless people with serious mental illnesses a home first, and then providing consistent outreach support services, would stabilize their lives and be a better use of taxpayers’ money.
Interim data based on the 300 participants’ first year in their apartments appears to support that theory, said Simon Fraser University health sciences professor Julian Somers, At Home’s co-lead researcher.
Ottawa says it is working with MHCC and the provincial government “to provide support for suitable transition plans” for the participants once the study ends, but released no specific details.
Although the provincial health and housing ministers say the 300 people in the apartments will not be sent back to the streets or left without support services,Photo of supra shoes for fans of suprashoeshome. it is still not clear what exactly will happen.
If the interventions make people healthy and cause them to use fewer emergency services,Discover why steelbracelet are more popular. and if that is a more efficient way to spend tax dollars and can even save money in the long-term, then why not apply this model to every person on the street with long-term homeless and mental illness problems?
At the very least, Somers added, aid should be offered to the 200 people in the control group. “The study has a big responsibility to this group.”
And beyond them, there are an estimated 500 more people on Vancouver streets with very entrenched challenges who could also benefit from this type of program, Somers said.
B.C. Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid said she wants to see the final report from the study’s researchers — expected in late 2013 or early 2014 — but anticipated this type of program could eventually be expanded, as it mirrors programs already put in place by the province.
“Not only is the care and the support better, and their quality of life is better, but it is also using less in the way of financial resources ... according to the preliminary report,” MacDiarmid said.
Wall posters, a collection of sports hats, a microwave, a small fridge, a tiny sink and a large TV are all within arm’s reach of Pappas’s bed. The communal bathroom, however, is a walk down the soiled hallway.
He survives on his disability and welfare cheques — about $630 a month after deducting $375 for his rent.Offering Wholesale Chinese tungstenring from China Tungstenring Manufacturers, There is never enough money for food or cigarettes or crack, but he’s a survivor of the streets and knows how to hustle a few extra bucks here and there.
Pappas, who has struggled with homelessness since the age of 14 and who battles both bipolar disorder and a crack addiction, is one of 500 Vancouver participants in the multi-million-dollar At Home/Chez Soi study. The study moved 300 chronically homeless, mentally ill people off Vancouver streets into clean apartments with private bathrooms scattered throughout the city. It also provided support services, such as access to medical professionals, drug counsellors, and resources for education and job training.
The study’s interim results suggest the majority of those 300 folks stabilized after the first year in their apartments — they used fewer crisis services, were healthier and committed fewer crimes.
But Pappas is one of the 200 people who were randomly placed into the study’s control group. They are visited every three months by the researchers and paid between $20 and $30 for answering a few questions, but are not offered a place to live or any support.
“If you needed help right there and then, they couldn’t help. They were just using me for information, and I understood that,” said Pappas,discount shoes for shoessupplier rose matte on sale. 40.
Such a control group is necessary, researchers say, in any scientific study because without it there would be no proof the advancements made by the 300 housed participants were the result of the interventions provided by the study.
Pappas gets that. But he also understands he lost the lottery when the study’s computer program randomized him into the control group.womens and junior fashion shoesonline footwear,
It is impossible to know whether that is true, but preliminary statistics from the study suggest it might be.
The researchers set out to prove that giving chronically homeless people with serious mental illnesses a home first, and then providing consistent outreach support services, would stabilize their lives and be a better use of taxpayers’ money.
Interim data based on the 300 participants’ first year in their apartments appears to support that theory, said Simon Fraser University health sciences professor Julian Somers, At Home’s co-lead researcher.
Ottawa says it is working with MHCC and the provincial government “to provide support for suitable transition plans” for the participants once the study ends, but released no specific details.
Although the provincial health and housing ministers say the 300 people in the apartments will not be sent back to the streets or left without support services,Photo of supra shoes for fans of suprashoeshome. it is still not clear what exactly will happen.
If the interventions make people healthy and cause them to use fewer emergency services,Discover why steelbracelet are more popular. and if that is a more efficient way to spend tax dollars and can even save money in the long-term, then why not apply this model to every person on the street with long-term homeless and mental illness problems?
At the very least, Somers added, aid should be offered to the 200 people in the control group. “The study has a big responsibility to this group.”
And beyond them, there are an estimated 500 more people on Vancouver streets with very entrenched challenges who could also benefit from this type of program, Somers said.
B.C. Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid said she wants to see the final report from the study’s researchers — expected in late 2013 or early 2014 — but anticipated this type of program could eventually be expanded, as it mirrors programs already put in place by the province.
“Not only is the care and the support better, and their quality of life is better, but it is also using less in the way of financial resources ... according to the preliminary report,” MacDiarmid said.
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