Alliance Partners on Innovative Street Psychiatry Program in Mecklenburg County

A Home For All, powered by United Way of Greater Charlotte, has launched Wellness Without Walls, a psychiatry pilot program designed to provide mental health treatment to Mecklenburg County citizens. The initiative is intended to increase access to care and meet individuals where they are. A combined $200,000 from SteelFab and Duke Energy has been granted to Roof Above and Hearts for the Invisible, the two street outreach partners selected who will work with the support of Alliance Health and Atrium Health. Other funding for the initiative includes $100,000 from Merancas granted specifically to MedAssist to support the medication management for patients and $3,000 from Molina Healthcare, along with supplies.

Throughout the United States, street psychiatry programs have arisen in multiple cities often partnering with hospitals, community outreach initiatives and shelters. Started in Pittsburgh in 1992, street medicine has evolved nationally and has become an initiative that provides communities and clinicians with expert training, guidance and support to develop and grow their street medicine programs. The model has proven to be an effective person-centered model of care delivery to serve patients experiencing homelessness and serious and persistent mental illness.

Wellness Without Walls, an initiative of A Home For All, has been in development since 2024 when United Way of Greater Charlotte brought together private and public partners to address the high prevalence of mental health disorders among those who are unsheltered and homeless and are often underserved as a result of trauma, stress and insecurity of living without stable housing.

The pilot has been designed by the community through collaboration across sectors to overcome barriers to accessing mental health care through traditional outpatient behavioral health services that require the patient to travel to a brick-and-mortar building for treatment. By partnering with the street outreach organizations of Hearts for the Invisible and Roof Above, along with community-based housing initiatives, Wellness Without Walls aims to reduce barriers to treatment, strengthen engagement with behavioral health services and combat stigma surrounding mental illness.

An Atrium Health psychiatrist and registered nurse will be in the community two days a week for the first year of the program. These positions are funded by Alliance Health, who will also participate in workflow development related to addressing unmet social needs and coordinating care with community organizations that provide other behavioral health services.

This initiative will specifically target unhoused adults age 18 and older with a diagnosed or undiagnosed behavioral health disorder. With the goal of treating 20 unduplicated patients per month in the first year, the program also hopes to lower emergency department utilization and ensure clients positively exit unsheltered homelessness. The team will expand its reach as individuals transition to clinic-based care and more spots become available, continuing to increase access to mental health care.

“Alliance’s funding of a psychiatrist and nurse for this project to increase access to critical behavioral health care for the unsheltered is so important,” said Ann Oshel, Senior Vice President, Community Health and Well-Being. “It takes help directly to people in need, while we work alongside our partners in the A Home For All initiative to ensure these folks can soon transition to safe, stable housing.”