2025 National Health Care for the Homeless Conference and Policy Symposium
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
The National Health Care for the Homeless Council (NHCHC) is pleased to announce our call for abstracts for the 2025 National Health Care for the Homeless Conference and Policy Symposium, to be held May 12-15 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront. Our conference — the largest of its kind in the nation — brings together researchers, healthcare professionals, policymakers, advocates, and individuals with lived experience of homelessness to share knowledge, highlights best practices, and advances the Health Care for the Homeless field.
This call for abstracts is open to NHCHC members and non-members.
We are excited to showcase many promising practices, models, and examples of leadership that center health equity and partnerships within communities. If you have a compelling presentation to share with peers nationally and internationally, we welcome you to submit an abstract that incorporates diverse perspectives and demonstrates the use of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion principles within the subject area.
If selected, presenters are required to pay for registration for the conference, and will receive a discount based on their presenter status and organizational membership.
HCH 2025 Theme: Building Communities
We invite abstract submissions on a wide range of topics related to health care for unhoused populations, including but not limited to:
Submission Guidelines:
Important Dates:
Consumer Participation
The Council recognizes and supports the critical role people with lived expertise of homelessness play in defining, measuring, and working together for health and belonging. We strongly encourage abstracts that meaningfully include consumers in the development of educational content and/or the delivery of the presentation. Council staff and members are available to assist consumers in developing proposals. For more information, please contact Community Engagement Director, Cindy Manginelli.
The Council encourages agencies to support the travel costs of consumer presenters whose workshops are accepted. Consumer presenters are prioritized for a limited number of consumer subsidies, which cover registration, meals, lodging, and limited travel assistance.
JEDI TIPS
Some ways to demonstrate promotion of JEDI within a subject area include:
CONFERENCE TRACKS
Please submit your abstract in only one session format and track.
Carefully review Conference Track opportunities, session formats and the abstract review process before submitting your abstract. Abstracts are typically about 250 - 300 words.
Clinical Care
An abstract submitted in the Clinical Care track should enhance the knowledge and skills of providers on the front lines to improve the health and quality of life of people experiencing homelessness. We encourage submissions by and for clinicians of any discipline. Sessions may reflect a discipline-specific focus for a topic deep dive or an interdisciplinary approach to confront the complex problems associated with homelessness and should explicitly address how care delivery is supporting health equity.
Policy and Advocacy
The Policy & Advocacy track is intended to highlight the efforts of the HCH community to create better public policy and achieve solutions to poverty and homelessness that are rooted in equity and justice. This track is distinct from the Program Operations and Innovation track in that it focuses on policy advocacy activities and partnerships external to direct-service organizations.
Program Operations and Innovation
The goal for sessions in this track is to enhance the knowledge and skills of decision-makers, supervisors, and administrators at health centers and other direct-service organizations. An abstract should feature promising practices in tailoring programs to meet the needs of people without homes through an equity lens within broader efforts to end homelessness and achieve justice. As opposed to the Direct Care track that pertains to skills in client interactions (i.e., “inside the exam room”), this track focuses on the decisions and structures supporting direct service (“in the conference room”).
Evidence and Evaluation
The purpose of the Evidence and Evaluation Track is to provide a venue for health services researchers, clinicians, quality improvement officers, or others in the community that serves unstably housed populations to: (1) Demonstrate research or quality improvement projects that are innovative, (2) Highlight emerging, promising, or evidence-based practices that impact overall population health, or policy efforts to improve the quality of care for individuals experiencing homelessness, and (3) Describe research that facilitates quality improvement initiatives at Health Care for the Homeless health centers to advance knowledge, support data, metrics, and improve the lives of patients served. Abstracts should highlight how research and/or quality improvement work is centered in health equity and justice. We are especially interested in projects that are led by, or informed by, patient and clinical stakeholders, and conducted in a clinic setting or settings where people experiencing homelessness live.
Medical Respite Care
The Medical Respite Care track is intended to highlight promising practices in the development, delivery, and evaluation of medical respite care services. An abstract should feature innovations in how communities and providers build their programs, support their staff, deliver clinical care, strengthen partnerships, evaluate impact, and/or create pathways for sustainable funding through the lens of equity and justice. As Medical Respite Care is cross-cutting, any abstract that fits in the Clinical Care, Policy & Advocacy, Program Operations & Innovation, and Evidence & Evaluation tracks would be appropriate for this track, as long as it is through the lens of Medical Respite Care.
EDUCATIONAL FORMATS
75-Minute Breakout Sessions
A 75-minute breakout provides an in-depth exploration of a program innovation, emerging issue, clinical challenge, finding(s) from a research project, policy change(s), or a quality improvement initiative. Presentations may include slide presentations, group exercises, facilitated discussion, and clinical case studies. Creative formats outside of traditional lecture/Q&A patterns are welcomed. Presenter Max: Three
Poster Presentations
Posters offer a succinct view of programs and practices, policy issues, or research analysis, and can be submitted under any relevant topic area. Posters will be presented during the Welcome Reception during an official poster and networking reception. Presenters should be with the poster during this scheduled viewing and posters will remain available for viewing throughout the conference during breaks. Specific guidelines for printing the poster will be provided upon acceptance. Presenter Max: One
SUBMISSIONS OF ABSTRACTS
Commercial Content
The educational content of this event is eligible for Continuing Medical Education Level 1 credits (ACCME), Continuing Nursing Credits (ANCC), Social Worker Continuing Education Credits (ASWB and NYSW - applicable with the exception of New Jersey) through Amedco.
No demonstration or endorsement of commercial products is permissible in educational sessions.
ABSTRACT REVIEW PROCESS
Abstracts will be reviewed blindly and scored by volunteers according to criteria established for each track. Review criteria are listed below:
1. “Building Communities”: The abstract should be reflective of the conference theme.
2. Experience: Abstracts that are prepared with the involvement of consumers and where consumers are co-presenters will be weighted more positively in the review process.
3. Relevance: The abstract should address significant, current issues related to health and social justice.
4. Evidence: For clarity, the abstract should clearly indicate whether practices to be discussed are evidence-based, promising, or innovative.
5. Replicability: The abstract should describe practices and approaches that can be replicated in other HCH health centers, medical respite programs, supportive housing, or homeless service provider settings.
6. Policy Impact: The abstract should identify and address a topic’s implications for public policy and agency policies.
7. Inclusion: The abstract should identify components or processes that explain how participants with relevant lived experience were involved in the development, design, or presentation of this submission.
8. Clarity: Overall, an abstract should be well structured, coherent, and easy to understand.
9. Format: The abstract should reflect the expectations of the submitted session format. Presentations with high audience engagement design will be prioritized.
The review process is blinded; presenter information, affiliations, and identifying information will not be shared with reviewers. Please refrain from including identifying information in the Abstract Summary and Description. Please use 3rd person without identifying information: e.g. "the organization", or "the clinic").
The Council reserves the right to recommend changes in the track or focus/content of a proposed educational session or may combine similar abstracts into one session. Submitters will be asked to indicate their willingness to combine abstracts upon submission. If abstracts are combined, submitters will be notified.
You do not need to be a Council member to submit an abstract. However, if your abstract is accepted for presentation, the presenters MUST register for the annual meeting by registration deadline. Submission of an abstract implies a commitment to make the presentation at the annual meeting.
Financial Support Policy
Contact
For inquiries please contact:
Brett Poe
Subject: Abstract Submission