The Schroeder Foundation is helping St. Michael’s Hospital break down barriers to health care for people experiencing homelessness.
MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael’s Hospital is a world-leading research centre dedicated to creating a healthier future for everyone. Through big-picture research and street-level solutions, MAP scientists tackle complex urban health issues, many at the intersection of health and equity. A major focus – one that The Schroeder Foundation has supported over the years – is homelessness.
The Schroeder Foundation has made a major investment to pilot the Homeless Outreach Coordinator program (aka the Navigator program) and break this cycle of illness and hospital readmission. Working in the General Internal Medicine Department, Navigators get to know patients who are homeless or precariously housed while they are in hospital. After the patients are discharged, Navigators help them get to medical appointments, identify essential community health-care and social services, and find a place for patients to recover from their hospitalization. The program has proven to be highly successful, and St. Michael’s is seeking to scale up the program across the hospital and at health-care centres across the country.
And most recently, The Schroeder Foundation is helping MAP director Dr. Stephen Hwang pilot and test a lasting solution to the homelessness crisis: Beyond Housing. His team is working with governmental and community partners to create a system that matches people to housing and community support and health-care services that are tailored to each person’s needs. And to make sure those services are available for as long as the clients need them, they are setting up a long-term case management program specifically designed to promote wellness and recovery, such as trauma-based therapy, health-care navigation and community integration.
The goal is to help people exit permanently from a life of chronic homelessness and improve their overall health and well-being.
Donations can be made directly to: https://maphealth.ca/
