Improving access to disability benefits among homeless persons with mentalillness: An agency-specific approach to services integration

Objectives. This study evaluated a joint initiative of the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to improve access to Social Security disability benefits among homeless veterans with mental illness. Methods. Social Security personnel were colocated with VA clinical staff at 4 of the VA's Health Care for Homeless Veterans (HCHV) programs. Intake as sessment data were merged with SSA administrative data to determine the pro portion of veterans who filed applications and who received disability awar ds at the 4 SSA-VA Joint Outreach Initiative sites (n = 6709) and at 34 com parison HCHV sites (n = 27 722) during the 2 years before and after impleme ntation of the program. Results. During the 2 years after the initiative began, higher proportions of veterans applied for disability (18.9% vs 11.1%; P < .001) and were awar ded benefits (11.4% vs 7.2%, P < .001) at SSA-VA Joint Initiative sites. Conclusion. A colocation approach to service system integration can improve access to disability entitlements among homeless persons with mental illne ss. Almost twice as many veterans were eligible for this entitlement as rec eived it through a standard outreach program.