Although most unhoused individuals are eligible to receive medical and behavioral health services, they are often the least likely to schedule a doctor’s appointment or step foot into a care center for the treatment they need.
That’s why, in Orange County, CalOptima Health, a county-organized fitness formula for low-income residents, provides them with physical care.
A new street medicine program aims to reach people living on the streets and in shelters with a fully equipped cellular medical practice that will not only provide basic care but also be able to connect them to broader health and housing systems.
More than just a van, the program employs a team of fitness experts who work with a conjugal city based on a municipality’s expressed wishes and coordinate with law enforcement, outreach teams, shelters, and housing providers to meet those desires.
“We know that [homeless people] don’t accept the classical medical system as true. They don’t like to move to physical facilities,” said Kelly Bruno-Nelson, executive director of Medi-Cal and CAL for CalOptima. an effort to recognize that if we want to help our members, we want to meet them where they are.
“It’s not reactive, it’s proactive, and that’s what these folks ultimately need.”
Launched in April as a pilot program in Garden Grove, CalOptima Health’s street medicine program has already served more than 100 people and is now expanding to create similar custom-designed systems in other cities, including Costa Mesa.
Last month, CalOptima’s board of directors announced that the company would partner with Costa Mesa and Anaheim to create two separate street medicine systems customized to care for others living on the streets or in congregate shelters.
While the company budgets for the initial budget, the concept is that as eligible beneficiaries enroll in Medi-Cal, their care will be reimbursed through the state, creating a self-sustaining delivery model.
Nate Robbins, who coordinates and supervises Costa Mesa’s homeless as the city’s community improvement manager, said his team is working together with CalOptima on a bidding process to choose a vendor to supply and operate the cell van.
“The goal is to make it a one-stop shop, where the van is the first contact,” Robbins said Thursday. “Appointments can be set up and [clients] can be referred to specialists, or the provider has it in-house. “.
The program’s outreach effort begins with peer navigators, who themselves have experienced homelessness and are a first point of contact with potential members. They will help bring people into the mobile health center.
Once there, members can book regular appointments via mobile van and be referred to fitness and intellectual fitness specialists. They could also enroll in systems that provide social assistance and broader assistance with transitoriness and, eventually, permanent housing.
Bruno-Nelson said that while the Street Medicine program focuses on health, housing is the main focus.
“It’s probably very unlikely that he’s healthy on the street. So, if we don’t focus on housing as well, we miss the end goal,” he said. “We take care of their medical and housing wishes, collectively. “
To that end, in Garden Grove, which does not currently have a bridge shelter, CalOptima officials purchased a defunct motel and are in the process of transforming the site into a support center that will provide temporary accommodations for Street Medicine program recipients. It is estimated to be up and running by 2025.
Costa Mesa’s Street Medicine program, which will begin in July, will be another as the city already runs a shelter, in partnership with Newport Beach, that can house up to 85 adults.
The facility’s capacity will increase to 100 beds this spring, after Costa Mesa won $718,000 in state funding, allocated through the county, to provide behavioral beds and outreach staff to others with intellectual fitness issues and drug addiction.
“Everything is lining up perfectly, exactly as it should be,” Robbins said of the timing of the complementary programs.
Costa Mesa Mayor John Stephens agreed and applauded CalOptima Health’s efforts to expand health care among the city’s most vulnerable population.
“The City of Costa Mesa is grateful to have been chosen as one of three cities in Orange County to implement the Street Medicine Program,” he said. “We look forward to partnering with CalOptima to provide health care to those I desperately love. “
Robbins said he and his colleagues are interested in beginning construction on a style of service that combines and builds on what the city is already doing with homeless people in Costa Mesa.
“It’s a game changer,” he said.
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Sara Cardine covers the city of Costa Mesa for the Daily Pilot. She is a native of the La Cañada Valley Sun, where she spent six years as a journalist covering La Cañada Flintridge and recently received the top public service journalism award from the California News Publishers Assn. She also worked for Pasadena Weekly, Stockton Record and Lodi-News Sentinel, which instilled in her a love of network news. (714) 966-4627
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