The University of Chicago Health Lab received a grant from Houston-based philanthropist Arnold Ventures to conduct a rigorous randomized control trial of Critical Time Intervention (CTI), a care coordination model that was developed in New York City in the 1980s. CTIME is a scaled replication study of the seminal CTI research undertaken by Susser et al. (1997) and Herman et al. (2011). CTI serves individuals with serious mental illness and a history of housing instability who are in major periods of transition with focused, highly personalized, and time-limited plans to connect them to the resources they need in their communities to lead healthy and stable lives. The Susser et al. (1997) study conducted in New York found that the number of nights spent homeless was reduced threefold among the population that received CTI services. 

The Health Lab is building upon the existing literature by examining the efficacy of Critical Time Intervention in different settings. The Health Lab is collaborating with nonprofit partners in the City of Chicago and five rural Mississippi counties (Lincoln, Rankin, Copiah, Madison, and Simpson) to provide CTI services. In Chicago, Heartland Alliance Health provides CTI services to formerly homeless individuals who are transitioning into stable housing through the city's Continuum of Care. In Mississippi, Region 8 Mental Health Services is providing services to both individuals experiencing homelessness or precarious housing recently discharged from the Brookhaven Crisis Stabilization Unit. The Center for the Advancement of Critical Time Intervention (CACTI) is providing coaching and technical support to both sites to ensure fidelity to the CTI model. The Health Lab team will be analyzing housing and psychiatric hospitalization outcomes from Chicago and Mississippi, respectively, to determine the effectiveness of Critical Time Intervention services in the urban Rust Belt and the rural South.

If you are interested in learning more or would like to participate in CTIME, please email ctime@uchicago.edu. 

CTIME One Pager Project Information