Joseph & Mary’s Home accepts referrals for adults experiencing homelessness who are confronting a range of acute or temporary medical needs, such as:

Back to Health, Forward to Housing
Joseph & Mary’s Home is the first and only homeless services provider in Northeast Ohio focused on medical respite, offering adults experiencing homelessness the opportunity to safely recuperate from an illness, surgery or injury. We are located in the Central neighborhood and serve adults from throughout the community who are referred to us by health care partners and other providers.

Joseph & Mary’s Home operates two facilities, one 10-bed facility for women and one 11-bed facility for men. Each has private rooms, ongoing medical supervision, medication management, nutritious meals, and coordination with local health care providers. Our 24/7/365 staff are dedicated to helping each individual heal and identify their housing needs so that we can connect them to housing resources.

Who We Serve
As a medical respite program offering temporary housing to acutely ill homeless adults, Joseph & Mary’s Home accepts referrals for candidates who are confronting a range of needs.

Our admission criteria for medical respite services is as follows:

• The individual is over the age of 18 and has been verified HOMELESS by Cuyahoga County Centralized Coordinated Intake.
• The individual has an established acute medical condition or chronic medical condition needing acute stabilization. In other words, an individual must be receiving some form of treatment to manage/stabilize their condition.
• The individual is independent with all their activities of daily living (e.g., bathing, toileting, transferring, etc.), and they are continent of urine and feces.
• The individual is independent with mobility and with any assistive devices.
• The individual is cognitively and/or behaviorally appropriate for group setting, and not presently exhibiting symptoms which require a higher level of care (i.e., actively suicidal and/or homicidal, frank delusions which impair functioning, acutely disorientated, wandering, etc.)
• The individual presents no symptoms of COVID-19 and has had no known contact with anyone who has.

If you are referring someone who is experiencing homelessness and in need of medical respite, first call Cuyahoga County Coordinated Intake at 216-674-6700. Then email [email protected] for more information.

Caring for the Whole Person
When a candidate is initially referred to the program, the Joseph & Mary’s Home clinical team consisting of a medical director and behavioral health director will help staff determine the medical severity of the potential resident. With this determination, Joseph & Mary’s Home can prioritize which candidates need care first, ultimately helping expedite the admission process.

Once the candidate is admitted into the program, the respite care team will complete initial medical, behavioral health, and housing assessments. From there, the team and resident together create an Integrated Care Plan. The care plan centers on five objectives:

1. Stabilizing medical condition; achieving medication compliance
2. Reconciling prescriptions with community providers
3. Establishing an ongoing relationship with a primary care provider
4. Providing education resources to promote knowledge and understanding of medical condition
5. Making progress toward obtaining permanent housing

Under these objectives, residents are provided with several actions steps that both the staff and resident work to achieve. Residents also work with a peer recovery supporter, who serves as a relational base of emotional support for residents through one-on-one interactions to help identify and cope with issues of mental health, substance use, and health self-management. Before a resident is discharged from Joseph & Mary’s Home, they create with staff a follow-up plan with goals aimed at increasing self-sufficiency by independently utilizing the available community resources.

Residents at Joseph & Mary’s Home are not only exposed to needed medical care and services, but because an emphasis is placed on their totality of being, staff also work with residents to set and accomplish personal, educational and financial goals. Residents are asked to participate in recovery programs as needed as well as educational activities designed to develop life skills and foster self-esteem. Joseph & Mary’s Home offers several programs to provide participants with a constructive outlet for self-expression, such as art therapy and music therapy.