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City Council Averts Healthcare Crisis in Shelters: Funding Cuts Restored for Medical Services | |
The City Council restored $1.2 million to the City's budget for medical and mental health services in shelters averting a potential crisis in preventive healthcare for shelter residents. Project Renewal's three shelter-based clinics provide primary care and mental health treatment for over 2,000 men and women each year. The loss of funding would have affected not only their long-term health but their ability to move out of shelters into housing.
"Our shelter clinics specialize in treating the unique needs of homeless men and women," reports Medical Director Dr. Roslynn Glicksman. "Our patients struggle with mental illness, substance abuse, and chronic illnesses like high blood pressure, diabetes, or asthma. Quite often, they don't even know how sick they are until they see a healthcare provider in our clinic."
Rachel Griffin, a psychiatric nurse practitioner at the Third Street Shelter recalls a patient who came to see her last year. He denied any history of mental illness, but had a history of alcohol abuse and had not had a job in 25 years. After several visits with Rachel at the shelter, "Mr. C." was diagnosed with schizophrenia. It took another four months of meeting with her before he came to trust her and to understand the need to take medication for his illness. Once his health improved, Mr. C. moved out of our shelter into a supportive housing residence where a case manager and psychiatric support is available. This would not have happened unless Mr. C. had found both the medical and psychiatric help he needed in the shelter. |
| Cost-effective Strategies for Healthcare Delivery: Deputy Director Mark Hurwitz Speaks at National Conference on Ending Homelessness | |
Deputy Director Mark Hurwitz | The National Alliance to End Homelessness convened 1,300 government and non-profit partners at its July conference to share ideas, challenges, and solutions to getting people into safe, stable, and affordable housing. Deputy Director Mark Hurwitz was one of the presenters in the area of health care - key to our client's goals in recovery. "Our challenge," Mark says, "was how to deliver on our promise to treat all patients regardless of ability to pay and at the same time cover our costs for delivering that healthcare." Our solution, and the subject of the presentation, was to structure our health care programs around the use of Medicaid as a funding stream to ensure that our clients get the comprehensive primary and mental health care they need.
We use Medicaid to deliver tailored services in three areas:
- Addiction treatment
- Integrated mental health care in our Parole Support and Treatment program, and
- Health care in all 7 clinics.
The Detox program helped 652 homeless patients last year in a safe, medically-supervised outpatient program. The cost to Medicaid is only $118 a day compared with a daily cost of $1,300 a day for an inpatient or hospital detox. And the results are significantly better - 53% of our patients continue addiction treatment in a longer-term setting compared with 20% of patients in public hospitals.Clients with severe mental illness in our Parole Support and Treatment Program live in their own apartments on leaving the prison system. But a place to stay is not enough. Case managers deliver counseling and support services to make sure clients stay healthy and focused on continued recovery.
Lastly, our five primary care clinics treat patients in both shelters and on the streets. (Two of our clinics are mobile, and travel to 17 sites weekly.) Our dental clinic and radiology clinic deliver specialty care. This adds up to 21,000 visits a year for a total cost of $5.5 million. Medicaid (or government health insurance) covers 40% of this budget, ensuring that patients are not turned away.
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| Residents at Fort Washington Men's Shelter Get Relief from Summer Heat | |
Inside the shelter that is. For years, men in the shelter have  struggled with the lack of air conditioning. The heat is not just a matter of comfort for the 200 homeless, mentally-ill men in the shelter. The anti-psychotic medications that most take have side-effects that make men vulnerable to heat stroke and other heat-related medical conditions. Thanks to a capital grant from the City Council, we were able to install air conditioning throughout the shelter, a much-needed improvement for the men. The relief came just as the July heat wave hit the city. Thank you, City Council! |
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