When Raef, 25, first began to consider the care kits, she reached out to her mentor, Dr. Jennifer Tan, a dermatologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Boston Health Care for the Homeless program. “We worked together to identify the items that would be most helpful,” Raef said.
“Offering low threshold, low barrier access to treatment, clinical care and harm reduction services is crucial,” said Deirdre Calvert, Director of DPH’s Bureau of Substance Addiction Services. “These vans will provide additional access and help us to connect with individuals we’ve been unable to reach before.”
Other agencies named in the grant are Boston Health Care for the Homeless in Boston, Mass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, and Stanley Street Treatment and Resources in New Bedford. The Kraft Family Foundation has donated the vans in Worcester and Springfield.
The city’s largest homeless organization cares for more than 11,000 people each year, meaning there is certainly enough need for Keyes’ commitment. “This type of work can wear on you sometimes,” he readily admitted, “but I do this because it is worthwhile.”
In Boston, the city and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts teamed up with Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program to transform the glistening downtown convention center into a 500-bed field hospital for COVID-positive individuals with no homes.
A small percentage of the 700-plus adults in Boston's homeless community who've tested positive have been hospitalized, according to Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. Eleven have died.
“An aspiring doctor and her mentor are creating care packages for coronavirus patients experiencing homelessness. What’s inside? A handful of hygiene products, hand sanitizer, earbuds, handwritten notes, and activity books filled with crosswords or Sudoku.”
“Since mid-April, Calnan has been working at the Boston Hope Medical Center, a respite shelter for people who are experiencing homelessness and have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the illness.”
"Researchers found something similar in Boston. In the study of 147 people testing positive at one shelter, just 11 reported a cough. That study is changing practices at the network of shelters affiliated with the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, says Travis Baggett, director of research at the programme and an author on the study. “Until that point, we were screening people by checking their temperatures, and using that as the basis for testing,” he explains. “But our data shows that if we aren’t more proactive, we’ll be too late to prevent an outbreak.”
