The homeless assessment program: A service-training model for providing disability evaluations for homeless, mentally ill individuals

Many of the nation's homeless people suffer from unrecognized mental illnes ses and do not have access to the kind of disability benefits they would be entitled to when properly assessed. The current system of disability evalu ations for Social Security income claims is frequently inadequate and leave s these individuals without any source of income. health insurance, and men tal health treatment. This article introduces a model of providing psycholo gical assessments for homeless, mentally ill individuals by supervised stud ent examiners, a model that could be replicated by other psychologists and training institutions. The authors argue that that there may be a large num ber of homeless adults who suffer from disabling mental conditions but who are not properly diagnosed and, therefore, do not qualify for benefits. The authors propose that the model presented can help to fill a gap in service s and may serve as a model of socially relevant clinical training.