This talk will frame homelessness as a structural problem, caused by inequitable laws, institutions, and socioeconomic forces. It will highlight the limitations of mental health services to address homelessness and the pitfalls of failing to recognize these limits. Finally, it will spotlight domestic and international best practices that address the upstream causes of homelessness.

Dr. Enrico Castillo is an academic community psychiatrist and health services researcher at the UCLA Center for Social Medicine and the Associate Vice Chair for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Castillo’s clinical and research focus is on services for people who are unhoused, with prior clinical experience as a medical director on a North Bronx Assertive Community Treatment team, as a staff psychiatrist for a “housing first” outreach team in lower Manhattan with the organization Janian Medical/Project for Psychiatric Outreach to the Homeless, and as a psychiatrist with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health Assisted Outpatient Treatment team. Dr. Castillo currently leads a NIMH-funded research study on the jail-to-homelessness pipeline experienced by individuals with serious mental illness. Themes in Dr. Castillo’s research are community-public-academic partnerships, health equity and health justice in medical education and research policy, and enhancing the capacity of public systems to address the health and social needs of individuals with serious mental illness. Dr. Castillo’s research has been conducted in close partnership with local, state, and national agencies and community organizations including the Office of the Surgeon General, the New York State Office of Mental Health, the Los Angeles County Departments of Mental Health and Health Services, the RAND Corporation, and Healthy African American Families II. Dr. Castillo is one of three physician members of the New Voices initiative of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 

*This talk will be given as a webinar as well as a limited in-person option.  The link will be provided on Tuesday, February 7th to those that have registered by 5:00pm on Monday, February 6th.*

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Articles: A Home of Your Own and The Way Home’s Community Plan to End Homelessness

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TO ATTEND IN PERSON, PLEASE CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.