Goal
The primary goal of CTI is to improve the Veteran’s capacity to remain housed during program participation and beyond by effectively connecting them to crucial community supports and helping them attain greater economic stability.
Core Principles
The intervention is focused on a transition period. CTI is aimed at assisting individuals to adjust to a difficult transition in their lives. This transition can be a physical shift (e.g., the transition from a sobriety model to a harm reduction approach to addressing substance use.) Often, but not always the transitions are into community housing from an institutional setting, such as a residential treatment program, transitional housing program, hospital, shelter, or jail.
The Role of the CTI Worker
Working collaboratively with Veterans, the CTI Worker links Veterans with VA and Community resources that will ensure: (1) continuity of care, (2) stability and (3) social integration. The CTI worker assists Veterans in these areas until they are linked with VA and community resources that are able to take over the provisions of uninterrupted and coordinated support. Some Veterans in the program are not eligible for healthcare from the VA, these Veterans need o be linked entirely to community services.
During the six-month transition period, the CTI worker makes assessments in the Veteran’s community, removes potential barriers and identifies resources that enable Veterans to successfully adjust to the transition and maintain long-term stability. These resource networks will assist Veterans in coping with new demands, as well as in anticipating and responding to crisis. Crisis often mirror the types of challenges Veterans have experienced before, and which put them at risk of homelessness, incarceration, hospitalization, and addiction relapse. The CTI worker focus mainly on the specific areas that place the Veteran at risk for housing instability, which will be unique to each individual.
Critical Time Intervention Case Manager
Chanel Harris
Tel: (503) 510-5014
chanel.harris@westcare.com
Core Values
The approach is grounded in a strengths-based assessment of the person in their environment, and CTI workers leverage these inner resources to connect Veterans to external resources that support long-term stability.
The CTI worker and Veterans take a collaborative approach to ensure that plans are aligned with Veterans preferences, honoring the Veteran’s right to self-determination.
Responding to the diverse needs of each individual Veteran. Their strengths and needs vary across a broad continuum and change over time. Similarly, the availability of resources for providing needed support is different for each Veteran.
We assume that Veterans have the capacity to progress toward greater stability and social integration, and to obtain enhanced meaning in their lives (Some Veterans need help rebuilding a sense of hope that will enable them to continue to grow and to reconstruct a stable sense of themselves. In a recovery-oriented approach, CTI workers must also believe in their own ability to influence the Veterans recovery. Recovery at the Veterans pace, taking a harm-reduction approach to encouraging positive behavioral change.
Respecting the different worldviews and beliefs that Veterans might hold and be aware that the Veterans experiences and views will inform their decisions, striving to balance the goal of supporting stability and continuity of care while respecting that the choices Veterans made are based on their personal values and priorities.
Veterans have the right to get accurate information about the nature, aims and limits of the CTI intervention and the CTI worker’s role. When the CTI worker introduces themselves to the Veteran, the description of the intervention and worker role will be clear.
Trauma-Informed care reflects and understanding of trauma by emphasizing emotional and physical safety, establishing trust, and promoting opportunities for Veterans to rebuild a sense of control and empowerment. It encourages the development of positive relationships in their social network, which promotes successful navigation through transition. Trauma-informed care therefore minimizes the chances that Veterans will be traumatized and limits their exposure to further trauma.
What is CTI?
Critical Time Intervention (CTI) is a time-limited evidence-based practice that mobilizes support for society’s most vulnerable individuals during periods of transition.
CTI facilitates community integration and continuity of care by ensuring that a person has enduring ties to their community and support systems during these critical periods.
CTI has been applied with veterans, people with mental illness, people who have been homeless or in prison, and many other groups. One reason that transitional periods are especially challenging is that clients are typically expected to navigate a complex and fragmented system of care. The transition period can also be a difficult time in the relationship between the client and his or her family and social network who may not be aware of how best to provide needed support.
CTI shares with long-term assertive community treatment and intensive case management models the aim of integrating clients in the community through development of independent living skills and by building effective support networks.
Like ACT and ICM, its approach also relies heavily on effective outreach and engagements by staff working in the community rather than in the office. Unlike ACT, and ICM, CTI is time-limited and highly-focused.
Rather than providing ongoing assistance, CTI’s emphasis is on mobilizing and strengthening client supports during the critical period of transition with the goal of ensuring that these supports remain in place afterwards.