Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Being homeless is not good for your health. SIU Medicine has deployed a street medicine team to try to, as the phrase goes, meet the homeless where they are, and, in many cases, get them a doctor for the first time.
For this purpose, that doctor would be Kami Harless, M.D. (pictured, right), who helped launch this program after being part of a similar one in Seattle. “The Number One thing is that it’s patient-driven.,” said the doctor. “Their priorities are our priorities, and as you build trust with folks, you can begin to have some of those more nuanced conversations about substance use, about mental health, about chronic diseases.
“The goal would be for us to expand to more days of the week, but we are very much in our infancy.”
Not so much so that there’s not at least one success story. LaDorise Ramsey (pictured, left), a licensed practical nurse, said, “There is a person who has been on the street a long time, and (the day after this interview) they will be housed for the first time ever. They’ve got a lot of challenges – substance abuse and just a lot of stuff, and, for the first time, they will be able to put a key in the door and we – this team – played a role in that as well. Not just with the medical side of it. It was the relationships, and they’re proud to come tell us, I’ve got my key, and you guys are more than welcome to come out and see my place.”
The SIU School of Medicine is, after all, a school, so second-year residents will be working on the street medicine team.
A community health worker and a coordinator complete the four-person team.
