Money Management Services for the Homeless Mentally Ill

Although case management has gained increased popularity as a strategy for providing services to chronic mentally disabled persons, the incorporation of money management into such client planning adds a critical element of care. The Skid Row Mental Health Service money management program has demonstrated that the addition of money management to a program of intensive but flexible case management can considerably aid the stabilization of clients' lives. The program's success shows that careful attention to the handling of income is a valuable service in a system of continuing care for chronic mentally ill homeless people . This service may lead to reduced homelessness and improvement ment in the general quality of life of these clients.

Although the money management program was not intended to attract new clients to the Los Angeles County mental health system, chronically disabled people who had never before used the county system enrolled in the program . This finding alone is a powerful recommendation for the introduction of such a program in other comprehensive mental health systems.