Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Anthony Corea

MOBILE HEALTH

Ask Wellness, TELUS Health team up to bring mobile health care to unhoused

Sep 18, 2024 | 6:00 PM

KAMLOOPS – It’s a project that the ASK Wellness Society and Telus Health have partnered up for. The goal is to bring primary health care and harm reduction services directly to people experiencing homelessness across the BC Interior using the Health for Good mobile clinic.

“I think this is a crisis of our times in terms of access to health care and, in particular, working with really marginalized populations,” said ASK Executive Director Bob Hughes, “Folks who are without housing, really struggling with the barriers that come with homelessness… [this gives us] the ability to actually go to people and provide dignified care knowing we are heading into this winter and really needing this level of service in the community.”

The clinic is contained within a vehicle that is 90 square feet. It’s equipped with all the medical supplies and tools needed to provide health care and counselling to patients. Kamloops sticks out as a community that is in need of the service.

“You’ve seen an over 50 per cent increase in the homeless population in Kamloops in the last few years,” said Carly Johnston of Telus. “You’re also seeing significant overdose rates and death from overdose. A program like this is going to help seek and find those individuals who are not proactively getting help, but we’re able to bring it to them.”

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The clinic is planning for more than 4,000 visits a year, with ASK Wellness running the service.

“We’re going to be providing assessment care, primarily wound care, lots of referral services,” noted ASK’s Tamara Ciancone. “We’re going to be sending people to our two clinicians. We have a primary healthcare clinician and an addictions clinician who we have available so we can get people started on medications and get wound care ordered for them. We’re going to try to alleviate some of that to flow to the ER.”

The health clinic is ready to roll, initially providing services in Kamloops and Merritt. In the future, plans are also in place to expand to Penticton.