Patient care at the heart of CUPS’ interior layout changes

Our clients and the people we serve are courageous — asking for help has never, and will never, be easy. Arriving at CUPS can be the first step to breaking the cycle of homelessness, poverty and trauma. CUPS is their safe haven to build a trusting relationship, Carlene Donnelly, our executive director, said.

Thus, a new warm and welcoming intake is just one part of a long-awaited capital project that will streamline CUPS interior layout with even further capacity to serve our clients integrated care. More than 10,000 square feet, undeveloped due to the 2012 economic slowdown, will be built out, providing clients with a new waiting area, triage welcome desk and access to external partners on site.

“Having somewhere that they can come in and someone is greeting them, immediately this is a pleasant exchange,” Donnelly said. “It settles people and reduces their stress.”

Additionally, other departments will move within the building to best serve our community. As it is, clients enter CUPS from street level into a stairwell and make their way to the top floor for intake. Yet, with possible heightened anxiety, some have, historically, not known where to go, she said. This new plan puts the central client intake on the main floor, providing more efficient access to reception and the triage team. All clients start here, no matter their needs (housing, health care etc.).

“The more you can start that first, initial meeting off on the right foot, honestly, that does make people more open to disclose what’s going on, and more committed to working with us on solutions,” she said.

With the new reception area, more people can wait for intake inside, especially during winter. Care coordination at the triage desk will assist current CUPS clients with programs and services, use the Integrated Care Assessment Tool (ICAT) for new people or connect clients to a community provider.

We’re thrilled that by fully developing our 52,000 square feet, CUPS will expand upon current partnerships with service providers, and offer them space on site for up to five days a week. These ‘pods’ are the next step in thoroughly triaging clients and helping to solve current issues.

When our team refers a person to an external service provider for an appointment, follow through has been hard to track even though CUPS teams are trained to ensure both parties connect.

“Unless somebody gets in touch, you never really know,” Donnelly said. “It’s always this big unknown.”

A move to have partners at CUPS aligns with brain science, in that people with traumatic childhoods are often challenged with executive functioning (ie. following through on actions and plans). We anticipate that if clients can meet with providers on site, it will lead to improvements in the rate appointments are adhered to, support information sharing and assist in peoples’ abilities to meet self-identified goals.

“The more answers we have on what actually happened to them within other partnerships, certainly helps us do a better job of trying to continuously move people forward,” she said.

CUPS team members will also benefit from these changes by having more resources at their fingertips. We’ll be even better equipped to provide the integrated, trauma-informed care our clients require. Donnelly said CUPS is working to reduce the stress levels of team members who find solutions for clients and patients with complex needs, and often have the “weight of the world on their shoulders.”

“For the client, it will be faster and more efficient to get their own needs met,” Donnelly said.

By combining the family development centre (FDC) and the Child Development Centre into its new space on the main floor, mental health, as well as the health clinic will expand onto the second floor. This move essentially doubles the available space for mental health programming at CUPS.

“How things are laid out physically changes how people see programs and services,” she said, noting the goal is to triage and conduct care planning for as many clients and patients as possible.

Elaine Wilson, senior director of operations at CUPS, said the new development will solve current space issues for the health clinic, in that additional rooms will be provided for clients to be seen in. By expanding that space for CUPS health teams, Wilson said there will be opportunities to seek out funding for program expansion, as well as new programming for clients.

Always looking at the future, Donnelly said CUPS is constantly evolving and refreshing itself. She said CUPS teams will never get comfortable in believing they always know what the clients need.

“We will always keep going, learning and developing through the environmental needs, what our clients and patients tell us and what our teams know to be true, working directly on the front line,” she said.