Medical Respite Care and Dignified Design: Opportunities for Creating Spaces for Healing for the Unhoused Community
AIAU25-AAH05
Included in subscription
1.0
LU|HSW
Live course date: 08/12/2025 | 02:00 PM
Included in subscription
Description
Tuesday, August 12, 2025 | 2:00-3:00pm EST
Medical respite care is defined as acute and post-acute care for people experiencing homelessness who are too ill or frail to recover from a physical illness or injury on the streets, but who are not ill enough to be in a hospital. Every medical respite care program shares the same fundamental elements: a short-term, safe place to stay, allowing people experiencing homelessness an opportunity to rest, recover, and heal in a safe environment while accessing medical care and supportive services. These programs are a critical opportunity to provide safety and opportunity to connect with providers and services to address the many factors contributing to a person’s experience of homelessness. To attend to the safety and healing of end users, programs would do well to employ intentional, trauma-informed, human-centered design approaches that support the mental and physical health needs presented by this population. Dignified Design is one such approach that prioritizes the needs of individuals accessing and delivering services in medical respite settings through a clear framework of principles and practices. This webinar will provide an overview of medical respite programs, their role in communities, and how the field of architecture can contribute to these programs through a Dignified Design approach, which centers the needs of people experiencing homelessness.
Learning Objectives
Describe causes of homelessness and how the built environment contributes to a person’s health and access to basic services while unhoused.
Define medical respite programs and services.
Identify key principles for trauma informed design for populations with lived experiences of homelessness.
Describe the importance of Dignified Design as a trauma-informed design approach within the medical respite setting.
Hosted in partnership with the Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH).
Nick Faust graduated from the University of Kansas with a Master of Architecture degree in 2018 with an emphasis in Health & Wellness Design. Nick became a licensed Architect (Texas) in 2020 and holds EDAC and WELL Building certifications. Beginning in 2017, Nick has worked for Lawrence Group in their St. Louis, MO and Austin, TX offices on numerous projects ranging from clinic and laboratory renovations to grounds up expansion hospitals.
Caitlin Synovec, OTD, OTR/L, BCMH is an occupational therapist with clinical experience in working with adults experiencing homelessness to improve quality of life and engagement in their preferred
communities. She has completed clinical research to address the intersection of homelessness, poverty, brain injury, behavioral health, and chronic conditions, and their impact on health and community living. Caitlin’s experience also includes program development for collaborative and interdisciplinary care, as well as clinical education and training for health care and direct service providers. She is currently the Assistant Director of Medical Respite Care for the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, providing training, technical assistance, and advocacy to advance the field of medical respite and homeless health care.
Jennifer leads a multidisciplinary research team at Shopworks Architecture, a Denver-based architecture firm that specializes in supportive housing and shelter settings. As a social worker and social scientist, Jennifer has experience in direct practice and program management, research and program evaluation, training and teaching. Her research interests include social innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration to promote equity and dignity in housing and homeless service provision. Her current research at Shopworks focuses on trauma-informed design in supportive housing and shelter settings, with previous research examining tiny home villages addressing homelessness, unconditional cash for unhoused individuals, safe parking for vehicular sheltering, artificial intelligence in housing allocation, and hackathons for generating novel responses to wicked social issues. She holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as an MBA and PhD in Social Work from the University of Denver.
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