Cross-Cultural Dialogues on Homelessness: From Pretreatment Strategies to Psychologically Informed Environments

Cross-Cultural Dialogues on Homelessness Reveal New Insights

This groundbreaking book presents compelling narratives and innovative approaches for addressing the psychological traumas that can underlie homelessness and is the first to explore in-depth what the US and UK can learn from one another.

Authors focus on understanding and applying the precepts of Pretreatment and “Psychologically Informed Environments,” as well as effective ways to promote productive dialogue on all levels--with clients, clinicians, advocates, policymakers, researchers, and others. Detailed case studies review and integrate “hands on” practice with Appreciative Inquiry, Open Dialogue, and Common Language Construction methods.  Edited by Jay S. Levy and Robin Johnson with Contributions from John Conolly, Ray Middleton, Suzanne Quinney, and Joe Finn.

“In Cross-Cultural Dialogues on Homelessness, Jay Levy and co-authors provide the conceptual tools, the hitherto ‘missing language’, needed by practitioners and policymakers working with excluded individuals. This book has been informed by the authors' practice and should come with a warning: it will revolutionise how you work - irreversibly and, undoubtedly, for the better.”
-- Clíona Ní Cheallaigh, MB, MRCP, PhD, Senior Lecturer in Medical Gerontology, Trinity College (Dublin)

“Jay distills many decades of his own street experience, and by cross comparing his brilliant schema of Pretreatment with the British model of Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE), he reveals the underlying common processes of effective street engagement. As a long-time practitioner of street medicine, I recommend this book to anyone who seeks that sacred place on the streets where healing begins.”
-- Jim Withers, MD, Founder and Medical Director, Operation Safety Net and the Street Medicine Institute (Pittsburgh)

 “Cross Cultural Dialogues on Homelessness is a timely and important collection of the latest thinking on how we should respond to the traumatic life experiences of so many homeless people. Levy and colleagues suggest a commitment to reflective dialogue will improve both the quality of frontline services and the way policymakers, managers and commissioners think about responding to the needs of people pushed to the margins of our societies.”
-- Alex Bax, Chief Executive, (London) Pathway - transforming health services for homeless people

Learn more at www.JaySLevy.com

From LHPress - www.LHPress.com

Jay S. Levy has spent more than 30 years working with individuals who experience homelessness. He is the author of the highly acclaimed books Pretreatment Guide for Homeless Outreach & Housing First and Homeless Narratives & Pretreatment Pathways. He has also published a monograph and several journal articles on Homelessness issues. Jay developed Pretreat-ment as an approach for helping people without homes. He has helped to create new Housing First programs such as the Regional Engagement and Assessment for Chronically Homeless program (REACH). Jay is currently employed by Eliot CHS-Homeless Services as a Regional Manager for the statewide SAMHSA-PATH Homeless Outreach Team. He is also an adjunct teacher at Anna Maria College and recently taught a unique graduate psychology course on Outreach Counseling, which integrated Pretreatment and PIE perspectives with the clinical challenges of homeless services work. He has achieved formal recognition from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Mental Health for his ongoing efforts to help under-served homeless individuals through his direct service, clinical super-vision of staff, and program development. Jay received his MSW degree in clinical social work from Columbia University in 1988. Jay lives in Western MA with his wife, Louise. His two children, Talia and Sara, are off to college and beyond. He is an avid stargazer. More information on Jay and his work can be found at www.jayslevy.com.

Robin first became interested in understanding mental health and mental illness when studying social science and philosophy in the radical years of the late '60s. He then came across the therapeutic community ("TC") approach - a movement for a more communitarian, "social" psychiatry - and worked and lived in a number of such communities through the 1970s, including the Henderson, probably the best known of all "TCs," which specialised in work with those we would now describe as having a personality disorder. Robin went on to train as a psychiatric social worker, and became interested in-and impressed with-the role of housing and homelessness services in working with some of their more vulnerable and chaotic clients, some of those most "hard to reach." In 2001, he left social services, to pursue an interest in research and dev-elop¬ment on mental health and housing, and soon found himself an adviser to various government departments on innovative practice. He was one of the leading authors of two government guidance papers on mental health needs that argued for better recognition of the work of homelessness services. He was for five years editor of the Journal of Housing, Care and Support, a visiting fellow at several universities, and worked on the Royal College of Psychiatrist's "Enabling Environments" working group, which was tasked with adapting the TC approach for the era of community psychiatry - work which indirectly gave rise to the concept of a "psycho-logically informed environ¬ment" in homelessness resettlement services. He has one remarkable daughter, of whom he is enormously proud; now lives in West Cornwall; and plays the baritone saxophone with more enthusiasm than competence. He claims to be trying to retire; but no one seems to believe it.