In Collaboration with VHA Employee Education System, VA’s National Center on Homelessness among Veterans, Homeless Programs Office, VACO Presents:

Complex Issues and Housing Solutions for Veterans Who Need to Register as Sex Offenders

November 28, 2018: 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EST

Presenters:

.Jessica Blue-Howells, LCSW, National Coordinator, Health Care for Reentry Veterans and CHALENG, Homeless Programs Office, Los Angeles, CA

Keith McInnes, PhD, Research Health Scientist, Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research (CHOIR), VA, Bedford, MA

Jennifer Knapp, LCSW, HCHV Program Coordinator, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA

Andrea Finlay, PhD, Research Health Scientist, Center for Innovation to Implementation, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA

Overview:

Challenges in finding housing for Veterans who need to register as sex offenders has been identified as the number one unmet need among homeless Veterans since 2011, the year the item was added to the national CHALENG survey.  More recently, the issue has also emerged as a critical challenge at VA medical centers as identified on the operational plans VAMCs submit to VACO.  This live webinar will provide staff working in homeless programs with an overview of what sex offender registration is, national VA policy on serving Veterans who need to register as sex offenders, an overview of the most current quantitative and qualitative research in the area, and an example of a best practice partnership between a VA medical center and a local Continuum of Care to find solutions.  It is critical to provide this knowledge to the field, as no national webinar has been offered to VA homeless programs on this topic since the 2012 Virtual Homeless Conference.

Audience:  Multi-disciplinary staff serving homeless Veterans.  Participants may include but are not limited to physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, counselors, case managers, housing specialists, peer support specialists, team leaders, supervisors, and Network Homeless Coordinators.

Modality:  Virtual conference (webinar)

Credit/hours:  1

Accreditations:  ACCME, ACCME-NP, ANCC, APA, ASWB, NBCC, NYSED, SW

VANTS:  1-800-767-1750 Passcode:  #22202 for audio to hear the presentation:

VA staff register here

Non-VA staff register here

Objectives: 

At the conclusion of this educational program, learners will be able to: 

1. Define the demographics of Veterans incarcerated for committing sexual offenses.
2. Explain risk and protective factors associated with committing sexual offenses.
3. Describe the context in which Veterans with a sex offense are coming from- in terms of the experience in incarceration, the challenges they face during incarceration, and the initial barriers to successful reentry  and reintegration. 
4. Identify factors that may enable such Veterans to overcome some of the challenges of reentry, such as treatment tailored to this group.
5. Describe a community best practice designed to address the challenge of finding housing for Veterans who need to register as sex offenders on community law enforcement registries.
6. Explore ideas around housing Veterans with history of sex offense by leveraging community partnerships.  

The National Center on Homelessness among Veterans promotes the development of policy and practice that targets ending and preventing Veteran homelessness through supporting the implementation of relevant research findings into clinical practice, providing education and training for VA and community partners, disseminating evidence-based and emerging best practices, and developing new empirical knowledge.

To learn more, visit our Center Education and Training Website
and our Education and Training SharePoint

For more information on education opportunities, please call Dr. Brenda W. Johnson, Education Coordinator, (813) 558-7629 or email Brenda.johnson4@va.gov