Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, Inc.

Vermont is facing crises in its housing and mental health care systems. People with mental health emergencies are regularly boarded in the emergency department for days on end to the detriment of their long-term health and at a great stress and financial cost to the health care and emergency response systems. At the same time, the state’s housing shortage has become even more acute with housing costs increasingly out of reach for residents. Those most impacted by these parallel crises are Vermont’s most marginalized residents—people without a place to call home, in distress from unmet medical and mental health care needs, and unable to access critical care that could shift their trajectory, improve their health and well-being, and—quite literally—save their lives. As we struggle to solve these crises, a collaboration of healthcare and human service providers presents a cost-effective, evidence-based solution that holds promise to improve the health and increase the housing stability of marginalized Vermonters, while also reducing healthcare costs and stress on emergency services. Windham County’s Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, the Brattleboro Retreat, Groundworks Collaborative, and Health Care & Rehabilitative Services has formed Healthworks ACT, a new model for healthcare delivery to people experiencing homelessness or housing instability. Healthworks ACT will reduce trauma, restore dignity, and improve quality of life for the community’s most marginalized residents.