Engagement
Strategies:
Service Delivery in
Supportive Housing
Joyce Grangent
Senior Program Manager
Corporation for Supportive Housing
www.csh.org
Every tenant brings a history, a culture, a
set of expectations and behavior that can
be shaped by such things as:
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Cultural, ethnic, and
racial differences
Gender and sexuality
issues
Mental Health History
HIV/AIDS
Other medical issues
Domestic violence
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Criminal histories
Long-term
homelessness
Development
disabilities
Histories of trauma
Issues specific to
women with children
Much more!
What else tenants bring
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Housing history
Family history
Spiritual life
Survival skills
Social networks and support systems
Tolerance level for structures and rules
Behavioral history
Expectations and Preferences
A Clash of Agendas
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The Professional
Support Person
– Duties and
responsibilities
– Product oriented
– Caring (We hope!)
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• The Homeless
Person
– Multitude of losses
– Depth of mostly
negative feelings
– Unique and uniquely
acquired strengths
Resolving the Clash
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Don’t create more
losses
Understand the
feelings
Uncover and build on
strengths
Using strategies and
techniques
– Harm Reduction
– Stages of Change
– Motivational
Interviewing
– Reflective Listening
Engagement Strategies
Engagement sets the stage for
formal case management and
treatment sessions where in-depth
assessments, counseling, and
referrals can occur on an
individualized basis.
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Goals of Engagement
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Care for immediate needs
Develop a trusting relationship
Provide services and resources
Connect to mainstream services
and social networks to maximize
independence
 Helping people stay housed
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Effective Engagement
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Create the proper physical environment
Respect, accept and support people
Develop active listening skills
Let the tenant’s goals drive the services
offered
 Help people make informed choices
 Be consistent with repeated, predictable
patterns of interaction
 Engagement should be non-threatening
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Effective Engagement
 Effective engagement for people with
mental health issues
 Effective engagement for people with
substance use issues
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Engagement is a Process
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Where we introduce tenant to services
relationship
Explain our role
Find common ground to build on
Engagement is not an event
Does not happen overnight
Varies from tenant to tenant
Creative Engagement Strategies
For Open:
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Friendly
Listen
Maintain eye contact
Keep conversation light
Respond to humor
Creative Engagement
For Closed:
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Intrusive
Talk to much
Too opinionated
Lecture
Analytical
Demanding
Engagement for People With
Mental Illness
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Enhanced When:
– Worker develops shared reality with tenant
– Interaction is consistent
– Worker allows tenant to exercise control in
the interaction
– Worker communicates his/her role clearly
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Whose Goal Is It
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Orient new tenants
Provide coordination among service
providers
Develop buddy systems
Provide individual case management
Opportunities to Achieve Goals
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Develop case management plan
Help with skill building
Coordination of mental, physical and
substance abuse services
Assistance with medications and/or doctor
appointments
Developing Trusting
Relationships
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Professional Relations
Goal is maintain housing
Information is confidential
We must set limits
In a Personal Relationship
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Different goals with different people
We can gossip to friends
We don’t have to set limits
Enhancing
Motivation for
Change
Building Motivation for Change
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Build Trust: Be consistent, trustworthy and
honest
Get to know the person
Learn to recognize and Identify
Emotions/Physical sensations of anxiety
Define the helping relationship
Working With Ambivalence and
Resistance
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Reactance Theory –helps to predict how
people respond to the perceived loss of
valued freedom
Reactance Theory states that it is natural
for people to try to maximize control and
choice
Why Tenants May Be Resistant
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Afraid staff will tell them what to do
Don’t want to be controlled or lose the right
to make choices
We view resistance as negative and part
of tenants illness
Tenant is trying to maintain their
independence/freedom
When Working with tenants Who
Is Resistant
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Avoid telling tenant what to do, instead
present options
Explore both sides of an issue, one-sided
focus increases reactance
Address one problem at a time-partner
with tenant to set priorities and timelines
for addressing them
Work with tenant where they are along
spectrum of change
What if this is not working?
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Steps to consider before terminating your clients
Discuss with Colleagues and Supervisor
Talk to clients about consequences/alternatives
Is there a way to negotiate the dispute?
Remember this is the only way for our folks to get
permanent housing
Roadblocks to Listening
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Directing- Do it this way
Warning- Creates fear or submission
Making suggestions-Tenant is not
competent or judgment is not trusted
Persuade with logic- you need to stop
drinking, or you may damage your liver
Shaming-Do you really want others to see
you like this
Motivational Interviewing
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Motivational Interviewing - is a way to get
tenants to recognize and do something
about problems
Useful with tenants who - are reluctant to
change and ambivalent about ability to
change
Intended to help resolve ambivalence and
get tenant moving on path to change
Staff acts as change agent
Five Basic Principals
To Motivational
Interviewing
Express Empathy
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Accurate Empathy
– Not identifying with tenant instead seeks to
understand what the tenant is saying
without being judgmental, criticizing or
blaming .
– Acceptance lowers defenses and make
tenant more open
– Trying to “make” tenant change creates
resistance and refusal
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Develop Discrepancy
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Listening patiently can help tenant see the
discrepancy between their present
behavior and goals
Gaining insight into discrepancy can help
gain motivation to change (must remember
what is said)
It should be the tenant who begins to fell
safe enough to voice concern
Avoid Argumentation
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Avoid expert trap
Arguing leads to negativity
Destroys alliance
Increases defensiveness.
Roll With Resistance
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Resistance is not bad.
It’s normal and we should expect it
Go with it and don’t get into power struggle
It gives insight to guide our work
Support Self-Efficacy
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Hope, optimism and self esteem are
needed for change
Plant seed of believability
Reframe failures
Let’s figure out what didn’t work
“Life takes on meaning
when you become
motivated, set goals, and
charge after them in an
unstoppable manner.”
–Les Brown
CSH Tools and
Resources
CSH Resources
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CSH website: www.csh.org
Institute website: www.csh.org/IL/institute
CSH Publications:
www.csh.org/publications
– Not a Solo Act
– Developing the Support in Supportive Hsg
– Toolkit for Developing and Operating
Supportive Housing www.csh.org/toolkit2
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