Support for individuals with severe substance use and who may be mentally ill and homeless.
Intensive case management (ICM) teams provide a team-based model of care, serving individuals with severe substance use and who may be living with mental illness and/or experiencing homelessness.
Teams include clinicians, nurse practitioners, addiction physicians, psychiatrists and housing outreach workers who work with clients to provide them with services to find and maintain housing and address their substance use, mental illness, general health and other needs in order to stabilize their lives.
ICM teams provide health and social services in community settings. Clients are engaged through multi-disciplinary teams, and services are tailored to the needs of clients. In keeping with the Housing First philosophy the ICM team provides recovery-oriented services focusing on client engagement, housing stability, and brokering services, including provision of and access to health care.
Teams support individuals in the private rental market. They can play a key role in helping people who are unhoused to obtain and maintain housing. ICM teams also work quite closely with our community partners, BC Housing, who address homelessness through shelters, rental subsidies, the homeless outreach program, and the homeless prevention program.
ICM team members work closely with the person along with the person’s family or other supports identified by the person, to create a plan to improve their quality of life.
The ICM team provides comprehensive assessment, treatment, rehabilitation and support activities that may include:
- Housing brokerage and support
- Assessing need for and facilitating access to medical care, including primary care (NP/GP), dental care and specialist care
- Substance use counselling and/or access to treatment
- Life skills support/skill building
- Grocery shopping with staff
- Social and recreational events
- Accessing vocational rehabilitation support
- Connecting the person to community resources
- Transporting/accompanying clients to appointments
- Supporting and encouraging: healthy lifestyle choices, personal hygiene, short and long-term goal setting and money management
- Connecting clients to income assistance services
- Assisting clients to manage their medication if required
What if there isn’t an ICM team in my community?
For people who live outside of Langley, Maple Ridge, Surrey and Chilliwack, adult community support services teams are available to provide them with support.
Access
Eligibility
- Adults 19 years of age or older with problematic substance use or chronic dependence with or without mental illness, concurrent disorders (substance use and mental illness) or co-existing functional impairment.
- These individuals face complex challenges related to health, housing (e.g. being homeless or unstably housed), and poverty.
- Individuals require more intensive services than are available in the traditional health and substance use system of care and often fall through gaps in health and social systems and have unmet health needs.
ICM team services are not suitable for people with:
- Severe mental illness with no substance use disorder.
- Concurrent mental health and substance use disorders where the primary issue is the mental illness (more suitable for ACT).
- Dementia.
Referral
ICM team services are available in Langley, Maple Ridge, Surrey and Chilliwack. Residents of these communities can be referred for ICM team services through a community or hospital-based health care provider.