Caitlin Downing testifies for SPOP on mental health and housing
Caitlin Downing of SPOP, the only agency exclusively dedicated to community-based mental health care for older adults, describes how 40% of referred clients have such dire unmet social health needs they can't participate in therapy, with housing being the most urgent need, and shares cases of suicidality and relapse triggered by housing insecurity.
Hi, I feel like this is celebrity sightings of all of our aging service organizations.
Good afternoon, Chair Swing and other City Council Committee members.
I'm Caitlin Downing.
I'm the Assistant Director of Social Health at SPOP, Service Program for Older People.
I'm grateful for this opportunity to testify in support of Resolutions 55, 470, and all legislation that improves access to stable housing for older New Yorkers, especially older adults living with mental health conditions and other disabilities.
SPOT plays a unique role in supporting the health, emotional well-being, and independence of older adults, and we've done this for more than 45 years.
We're the only agency in the city that's exclusively dedicated to community-based mental health care for older adults, and we provide individual group therapy, psychotherapy, assessments,
medication management, psychiatric rehabilitation services to over 1,000 older adults every year.
My role at SPF is to help make sure our clients are assessed for social determinants of health, like housing, food insecurity, social isolation, and to connect people with appropriate services in the community.
Housing, by far, is the most urgent need among the population we serve, and this need is greater every year.
About 40% of all of the adults referred to us for mental health care have such dire, unmet social health needs that they cannot participate effectively in their psychotherapy.
Our goal is to address those concrete needs and stabilize our clients so they can have the
to receive the treatment that they need.
Every day I hear from older adults who are at risk of losing their housing.
People have expressed to me feelings of depression, anxiety, shame, hopelessness, suicidality, all around being afraid of losing their apartments, not being able to pay their rent.
I meet with people who feel they've done everything right.
They get Social Security.
They might get a small pension.
But maybe the sudden death of their partner means now their household income is cut by half.
We have clients who are on the precipice of opiate addiction relapse because the threat of losing their home is overwhelming.
Housing equals health, and programs like SCRI, DRI, and SHE are crucial to helping older adults remain in their homes.
Thank you for this opportunity to testify today.