Mobile care team bringing medical care, mental health services to houseless
By KANDRA KENT
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CLARK COUNTY, Washington (KPTV) — A brand-new health clinic on wheels hit the road Tuesday to help people experiencing homelessness in Clark County get the basic care – or specialized treatment — that might keep them out of emergency rooms or jails.
The mobile care program is led by Columbia River Mental Health Services.
The nonprofit sends out a team of medical professionals out around the county to meet houseless individuals, including a mental health therapist, a drug and alcohol counselor, a nurse and a peer support counselor.
“What we’re trying to do is reestablish faith in the services that nonprofits and behavioral health organizations provide in an environment where folks are super comfortable,” said Mike Delay, the director of Columbia River Mental Health Services.
“We’re providing them basic wound care we’re providing them basic physical health services, screenings and most importantly, referral to primary care doctors,” Delay added. “We’re helping them get set up with medical insurance.”
The goal is to develop relationships and offer support and resources that can prevent situations that could otherwise involve police or clog up emergency rooms unnecessarily.
Trust is the first, and most critical step and that’s where peer support councilors like Reinhardt Ryden come in.
Ryden told FOX 12 he is in recovery himself.
“What I’m able to do is share some of my lived experiences to connect with people and talk to them more on that one on one and kind of build a friendship with them,” Ryden said.
Eventually, the mobile care team hopes to have providers who can prescribe medication out in the field and even deliver it to patients.
“This is where they live, this is where their support systems are, we’re not asking them to come to a specific scheduled appointment that might be all the way across town, and they don’t have access to transportation for,” Delay said.
Delay said that with good health comes greater stability, which is another piece of the complicated puzzle that could help people get on their feet to break the cycle of homelessness and find jobs and housing.
“Unhoused individuals are part of our community and getting the opportunity to get to treat them like that rather than peripheral members of society, I think is how we start bridging that gap and welcome them back in,” Delay said.
The program is funded by various community partnerships.
For now, the team goes out to different areas of the county Tuesday through Friday.
They hope to eventually expand the program to seven days a week.
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