Community partners come together to provide care for unhoused residents
Community partners came together in mid-November to provide healthcare services to the unhoused residents in Lawrence. The clinic took place at Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health on Saturday, November 18, at Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health.
Over the past year, the City of Lawrence, Douglas County and other agencies serving the unhoused have worked on a strategic plan to address housing and homelessness. Assistant County Administrator Jill Jolicoeur shared that part of that work included a series of listening sessions with unhoused community members and the general public.
“We heard that there are pronounced, urgent needs that weren’t in our immediate plan, and one area drawn out was healthcare and the inability to access medical care,” she said. “It was important to address that right away to build trust, so we took that conversation back to the stakeholders providing those services and seeing the unhoused on a regular basis.”
Jolicoeur coordinated a number of local agencies to find a way to address primary care, prevention and make an impact on the health of unhoused residents, including:
- Artists Helping the Homeless
- Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center
- City of Lawrence
- DCCCA
- Douglas County
- Heartland Community Health Center
- Heartland RADAC
- Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition
- Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health (LDCPH)
- LMH Health
- The Jax Project
- University of Kansas
“Healthcare for the unhoused is an issue facing all of these organizations,” said Sheryle D’Amico, LMH Health senior vice president for strategic integration. “LMH Health is an important player in this realm. Our amazing providers, clinical support staff, pharmacists and other associates were ready to meet the challenge. We had seven teams of providers and support staff volunteer on this day, with three more provider teams also willing to serve.”
Artists Helping the Homeless made their vans available and Uplift Coffee also joined these agencies to provide support for the clinic, which addressed the immediate healthcare needs of the unhoused population in Lawrence. Patients underwent an assessment and were able to receive medication at no cost for minor medical issues.
Jenn Kessler, Director of Patient Engagement and Community Health Worker Program manager at Heartland Community Health Center, is grateful to have the opportunity to partner with other local service providers to ensure our community gets the care they need.
“Our Community Health Worker (CHW) team met with each patient after their primary care visit to continue the work of addressing social needs and bridging the gaps these community members are experiencing,” she said. “The CHWs assisted with enrollment for phone service, referrals for free vision services through the Social Service League program as well as coordinated entry system housing assessments.”
The team set an ambitious goal of seeing up to 60 unhoused residents. Turnout was lower than expected, with volunteers providing care for fewer than 10. The community members served at the clinic have completed follow-up visits and are scheduled for further care. Kessler looks forward to continuing engagement.
“Heartland is committed to health equity for our most vulnerable unhoused community members, as well as continuing to learn how we can address barriers to care,” she said. “To truly bridge gaps in care and build relationships within the unhoused community to access services, we need to consider how we can best meet folks where they’re at and in their own communities.”
D’Amico agreed, saying that the community partners will continue to meet to look at long-term ways to provide healthcare for unhoused residents.
“It’s been wonderful to see that there’s such great cooperation between these local partners to provide care for the community,” D’Amico said. “It’s important for LMH Health to be part of a short-term, early solution while simultaneously collaborating to determine what a long-term plan looks like. We learned to work better together during the COVID pandemic and we will all continue to play a role in this important work.”
