Critical Time Intervention Workshop Proposal
Program Description
Critical Time Intervention (CTI) is an intensive case management model designed for
persons with mental illness who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, or who are
making the critical transition from an institutional to community setting. CTI is a
SAMHSA evidence-based practice with demonstrated outcomes in reducing nights of
homelessness and hospitalizations. It is time-limited and phase-based, lasting up to nine
months and consisting of three phases. CTI is delivered by a team that is led by a licensed
clinician. The model focuses on six key areas: access to mental health, substance abuse
and medical care; housing; benefits; money management; independent living skills; and
family and social connections. This workshop will provide an introduction to CTI and
review potential of the model to fill service gaps in the NC mental health system.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this workshop, participants should be able to:
1. Describe the CTI model and who may benefit from it.
2. Examine clinical and practical strategies useful in CTI
3. Explore strategies for developing a CTI team
4. Discuss benefits of CTI
Target Audience
Social workers, counselors, nurses, mental health workers, care coordinators,
administrators and policy makers.
Contact Hours
6.0 hours
Program Agenda
9:00-10:30
10:30-10:45
10:30-12:00
12:00-1:00
1:00-1:30
1:30-4:00
CTI: Overview and Evidence-Base
Break
Homelessness and Mental Illness
Lunch Break
Personal narratives on moving out of homelessness
CTI Tools:
Engagement strategies
Clinical, functional, and environmental assessment
The therapeutic relationship
Accessing benefits
Working with other providers
Problem-solving
Mediation
Family and social reconnection
Faculty
Barbara B. (Bebe) Smith, MSW, LCSW, is a clinical assistant professor in the School
of Social Work and an adjunct clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is currently project director for Critical Time
Intervention: Local Pilot and Statewide Championing, a new initiative funded by the Kate
B. Reynolds Charitable Trust. Critical time intervention is an evidenced-based intensive
case management model designed to assist persons with mental illness in making
successful transitions from homelessness to housing, or from institutions to communities.
She also teaches graduate students in the mental health curriculum.
She is a founder and former co-director of the UNC Center for Excellence in Community
Mental Health. From 1995-2009, she served as director of outpatient services for the
Schizophrenia Treatment and Evaluation Program (STEP), a specialty clinical program in
the UNC Department of Psychiatry. In 2005, she and her colleagues Diana Perkins, MD,
MPH and David Penn, PhD collaborated on the creation of Outreach and Support
Intervention Services (OASIS), an early intervention program for young persons in the
initial phase of a psychotic disorder that was modeled after international programs in
early psychosis.
In her clinical and educational work, Bebe has focused on helping people with psychotic
disorders with interventions and strategies that are key to social work practice—family
psychoeducation, psychotherapy, case management and self-empowerment.
Underpinning these strategies is the relationship, a key to engaging persons with
psychotic disorders in meaningful treatment, and in meaningful communities. She has
also been a strong proponent of the team approach to care and community collaboration.
Bebe graduated from Vassar College with a BA in English in 1984, and received her
MSW from the UNC School of Social Work in 1993. She worked as a volunteer in a
psychiatric hospital in England in 1984; and received some of her best training as a
graduate student at Club Nova, a clubhouse model program in Carrboro.
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