Street medical teams are taking care of the homeless in LA and around the US
Street medicine is all about meeting people where they are. If you’re homeless, that place can be anywhere on the street, hence the name. In Los Angeles, the amount of people living on the street unfortunately continues to increase year over year. Most don’t get medical treatment for any of the health issues they are facing. Thanks to funding from USC, Brett Feldman and his team are able to drive around the streets of LA looking for someone who is sick so they can take provide them with immediate medical treatment. Every weekday at 8, the team gets into their van, which is packed with blankets, tents, mattresses and socks.
Some patients are initially found at the hospital, and Feldman then goes out to follow up with them. Many times the patients will tell the doctor of other people they know that are ill and need assistance. The team has over 70 patients that they visit on a regular basis. Feldman said when you ask why they’re homeless, “what you don’t hear is lack of affordable housing, gentrification, minimum wage... The cause is emotional poverty, spiritual poverty,” he said. “They feel discarded by society.”
He originally had a street medical team in Allentown, Pennsylvania for over 10 years before heading to California. He chose LA due to the lack of available shelters, which means more homeless live on the streets. In LA county, 75% of homeless live on the streets, which puts them at a greater health risk.
As the number of people living on the street rises, so do the number of street medical teams. According to the LA times, there are over 90 street medical teams across the nation.
USC nurse Gabrielle Johnson, right, hugs and holds homeless patient Alfred Mills, 62, who used to be Little Richard’s bodyguard and has been homeless for 12 years.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Brett Feldman, MSPAS, PA-C is the Director of Street Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and serves as the Vice Chair of the Street Medicine Institute.