Taking It To The Streets

Taking it to the Streets
Atlanta's Gateway Center is a one-stop-shop for the city's homeless folk. It is located in the former jail and you can certainly tell that once a building is a jail it always looks like a jail. The metal doors to the rooms and offices slide open and when they shut it is with a clang. Each floor has the same layout so while everything is named something different, and each floor has a separate function, each seems very similar.

Still, many of the participants at this year's gathering of the International Street Medicine Symposium were blown away by the vast collection of services all under one roof. Work with the world's homeless population varies from city to city and each community seems to have something unique and different that no other site has. So when there are collections like this one, where every person represents a "Best Practice" it is hard not to be captivated by something.

Afterwards, many of the health care professionals who are meeting here, went out and did what they do best. They went looking for homeless people on the streets of Atlanta and delivered health care to them on the spot. Most of the Atlanta service providers were then blown away. This city doesn't have street medicine yet and it saw a completely different dimension to health care clinics.

Here, clinics are held but homeless people do not come. When a nurse or a doctor approaches a homeless person laying on a piece of card board, it is a completely different experience. The homeless person is receptive because their world is being turned upside down. Rather than being shunned or kicked out of emergency rooms, they are sought after. The human element of health care is made manifest again. And there is something holy about it.

Today after a visit from Dr. Wesley Clark who is the nation's funder of substance abuse programs, 8 different cities will highlight their unique best practice. And there are no real egos in this process. These are a different breed of health care professionals. Most of them do not drive new cars (I know because I've visited many of them and they have lousy vehicles)but care passionatly about they do.

It is a humbling experience to be with such a collection who I am fortunate enough to call my friends. Friends that you learn from are the best kinds of friends.