Jonas Richards became homeless several years ago after losing his job as a truck driver. Despite suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes, seeing a doctor has not been a major priority since then.
“When you are homeless, it’s not easy,” said Richards. “You find yourself stirred, trying to keep a little money in your pocket, trying to find something to eat.”
But Richards recently made his first visit with doctors Miami Road medication sitting on a curb outside a homeless shelter.
Richards said, “You are doing everything here very fast.” “It was a great help.”
Miami Street Medicine is a non -profit organization that provides free mobile health care services to homeless people. It is part of a large group, Dad County Street Response, including a free clinic, which includes doctors, borders, a disaster relief team and a mental health crisis line.
Creation of trust with care
Miami Street Medicine teams of paid staff and medical school students volunteers are not just cutting and handing over to Aspirin. They are consumed on patients with tablets and offering follow -up trips to older conditions. They are working with experts such as a dermatologist, neurologist and cardiologist.
“We are out to meet the needs of our patients,” the founder Dr. Dan Bergolz said. “And if it is a decline of cough, we have found you. We are happy to help you with the decline of that cough. But the mission is very high. It is showing that we care, and we are there for them. So when that cough becomes pneumonia, they will listen to their lungs and probably trust us to take us to the hospital.”
Bergolaz started doing ground work for Miami Street Medicine about seven years ago. He said that he had started doing charity outreach with homeless people as a graduate, but it seemed that more could be done.
“It felt as if we were not pushing the needle for the people,” Bergolz said.
After knowing more about the growing trend of street medicine and accepted at the Medical School of Miami University, Bergolz began working with other students to set up a program.
“I quickly went to Miami and just started hitting the streets and started interacting with people,” he said. “You can call it an assessment requirement.”
As Miami was taking off the street medicine, the Kovid -19 epidemic hit and forced the group to adjust. Bergolz is associated with Dad County Street Response to provide health care in more underscore regions.
“A type of large vision emerged to fill the gaps in the local social security net,” said Bergolz.
Regular treatment
A challenge is the transient nature of the homeless people, making it difficult to provide continuous care. The founder of the Dad County Street Response, Dr. Armen Henderson said that the problem is complicated by laws that target homeless people.
“Criminalization of being homeless has greatly affected our patients’ ability to be a place to get services,” Henderson said. “For the Street Medicine Team, they know that they meet us in one place. But if most of those patients are now ending in jail, now people are trying to find out which places the police are not harassing them.”
Another challenge is fighting the common spirit that really becomes homeless by providing services, Henderson said.
“The only thing that becomes homeless is easy access to the housing,” he said. “There is nothing that encourages people to be unheard. No one wants to be unheard. So by offering such services, we are really trying to reduce people’s suffering. When people come here, they want to get out of the road. They want to find a plan.”
An ounce of prevention
Members of Miami Street Medicine have seen more people in recent years to lose their homes as prices rise and wages remain stable. Dr. who oversees street medicine teams. Enaki Bent said that he has seen an increase in unspent migrants on the roads as the state and federal governments have expanded immigration enforcement this year.
“I see patients here who are no longer working,” Bent said. “They are no longer working because the field and construction sites have become targets. And they would not like to be employed or do not want to expose themselves to that risk.”
In addition to personal benefits to patients, providing medical treatment on the road and group prevents healing conditions from becoming an emergency that eventually stresses the entire health care system. For example, Bent had a patient, who was previously treated for seizure in an emergency room and received a leaflet, but could not tolerate it. The patient must have finally returned to ER, but Miami Street Medicine paid for his medicine.
“So we are capable of filling that void and hope to stop some more entry,” Bent said. “But we are also able to do a human service to provide him for him, for our fellow man, to provide him necessary health care so that he can start his way towards a productive life.”
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