Miami – Miami (AP) – Jonas Richards became homeless several years ago after she lost the work of the truck driver. Despite the fact that he suffered from high blood pressure and diabetes, since then, a doctor’s appeal was not the main priority.
“When you are homeless, it's not easy,” Richards said. “You find yourself, trying to keep a little money in your pocket, trying to find something to eat.”
But Richards recently first visited doctors from Miami Street medicine Sitting on the curb near the shelter for the homeless.
“You are doing everything here very quickly,” Richards said. “It was a lot of help.”
Miami Street Medicine is a non -profit organization providing free mobile medical services homeless People. This is part of the larger group, The answer of the Okrug DeidWhich also includes a free clinic called doctors within the boundaries, a team to help naturally disaster and line of mental health crisis.
The Miami Street Medicine teams teams of paid staff and students of the medical school – this is not just cutting the bandage and distribution of aspirin. They perform patients with tablet computers and offer subsequent visits to chronic conditions. They work with specialists such as dermatologists, neurologists and cardiologists.
“We are to satisfy the needs of our patients,” said the founder Dr. Dan Bergoltz. “And if this is a drop of cough, we have you. We are happy to help you with this drop with a cough. But in fact, the mission is much more. This shows that we care, and we are here for them. Therefore, when this cough becomes pneumonia, they would allow us to listen to their lungs and, possibly, trust us to take them to the hospital. ”
Bergholtz began to lay the foundation for street medicine Miami about seven years ago. He said that he began to engage in charity with homeless people as undergraduate, but it seemed that this could be done.
“It just seemed to me that we did not quite move the needle for people,” said Bergholz.
Having learned more about the growing trend of street medicine and the Miami University, which was adopted at the University of Medical School, Bergholz began working with other students to create a program.
“I moved early in Miami and just started to beat the streets and communicate with people,” he said. “You can call this an assessment of needs.”
Just like the Miami Street Medicine flew out, the Pandemic Covid-19 pandemic and forced the group to adapt. Bergholz is associated with the reaction of the Daid district Street in order to provide medical care for more insufficiently maintained areas.
“A kind of larger vision has appeared to fill the gaps in the local social security network,” Bergholz said.
One of the problems is the transient nature of the homeless, which complicates constant care. Dr. Armen Henderson, founder of the response of Dade County Street, said the problem is aggravated Laws that aims at the homeless.
“The criminalization of homelessness has significantly influenced the ability of our patients to be in one place to get services,” said Henderson. “For the street medicine team, they know that they meet us in one place. But if most of these patients are now in prison, now people are trying to find out which places do not pursue them. ”
According to Henderson, another problem is to deal with general moods that the provision of services actually increases homelessness.
“The only thing that ends homelessness is easy access to housing,” he said. “There is nothing that encourages people to be inseparable. No one wants to be uncommon. Therefore, offering such services, we are actually trying to alleviate the suffering of people. When people come here, they want to leave the street. They want to find out a plan. “
Members of Miami Street Medicine noticed more people who have lost their homes in recent years, as prices increase, and wages remains stagnant. Dr. Inaki Bent, who oversees the street medicine teams, said that he also saw an increase in illegal migrants on the streets, since state governments and federal possessions have expanded immigration law enforcement this year.
“I see here patients who no longer work,” Bent said. “They no longer work, because the fields and construction sites have become targets. And they would prefer not to use or not to expose themselves to this risk. ”
In addition to individual benefits for patients, the provision of medical treatment on the street and in the clinic of the group prevents emergency situations that ultimately annoy the entire healthcare system. For example, Bent had a patient who was previously treated for seizures in emergency care and received a recipe, but could not afford it. The patient would ultimately return to the ambulance department, but Miami Street Medicine paid for his medicine.
“Thus, we can fill this emptiness and, I hope, prevent a couple more reception,” Bent said. “But we can also provide a human service for our brothers in order to provide him with the necessary medical care so that he can start his path to a productive life.”
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Follow David Fisher on the social platform Bluesky: @Dwfischer.bsky.social
