BOISE, Idaho — CATCH, a local organization working to end homelessness in the Treasure Valley, will now provide mental health services.
The expansion comes two years after the nonprofit won roughly $1 million in grant money from the Jeff Bezos Day One Families Fund after someone anonymously submitted them.
Clinical Director Sarah Sangster said the nonprofit spent 2023 developing what the program will look like and how it will work. Catch's integrated behavioral health team will help people in its Taking Rook program, which aims to house families in need.
She said they will ask people in the program to take a mental health survey. Depending on their level of need, the team will either work with them or refer them out.
Addressing people's mental health struggles now will help them succeed later on, she said,
"Without those mental health services, a lot of times, we find that once a client does get housed and things are not no longer chaotic, that's when they start experiencing an increase in the mental health symptoms," she said.
Sangster said there are often long wait lists for Idahoans wanting help. When people who are unhoused get that help, it can be hard for them to make it to their appointments regularly.
That is why she said CATCH designed its program to be as flexible as possible so the team can meet people where they are at.
The nonprofit hopes to start seeing clients the first week of December. They are still working to hire a behavioral health consultant in Canyon County. Ada County is all set.
The grant is three years. Sangster said they are hoping to pay for the program through Medicaid long-term but are still working out the details.