The Housing and Accommodation Support Initiative (HASI) and Community Living Supports (CLS) are state wide programs providing psychosocial supports to people who have a severe mental illness so that they can live and recover in the community, in the way that they want to. These programs are part of a suite of community-based psychosocial programs for adults called the NSW Mental Health Community Living Programs.
The Ministry of Health funds specialist community managed organisations to deliver HASI and CLS, in close partnership with local health districts.
Ministry of Health funded psychosocial supports commenced in 2003 with HASI General, and the supports have expanded progressively in phases:
The NSW Government is committed to a decade-long, whole-of-government transformation of mental health care.
The HASI and CLS programs are important foundations of the Government’s commitment for a greater focus on community care. Together they form a key part of the strategy in NSW to prevent avoidable hospitalisations and presentations to emergency departments due to mental illness.
The integrated partnership models of both programs are also well aligned with the NSW Strategic Framework and Workforce Plan three interconnected goals of:
A comprehensive evaluation was conducted of the HASI program in 2012 by the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC), University of New South Wales. It concluded that consumers receiving HASI support had:
The SPRC commenced a more recent evaluation of the HASI and CLS programs in 2018 and will report progressively until the evaluation is finished.
HASI and CLS support helps people to establish and work towards their own, unique goals. The types of support that people receive depends on their individual needs and what they want to achieve. Read more information about the HASI programs and Community Living Supports.