Homeless Health with Homeless Health Peel
Take a listen to our new episode of Homelessness in Hiding: Our Youth Between the Cracks to learn how two nurses left their full-time stable jobs in the nursing field for a month-to-month contract to provide health care to the homeless in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Host Mya Moniz sits down with the Director of Operations Rasheen Oliver and Nurse in Charge Kimone Rodney of Homeless Health Peel, a nurse-run organization founded in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode, Moniz, Oliver, and Rodney discuss the importance of providing coordinated, cohesive healthcare to people experiencing homelessness by medical practitioners trained in trauma-informed care, as well as explore the existing gaps in homeless healthcare that currently complicate access to it.
The COVID-19 isolation centres started as a means to control the spread of the virus in Peel’s vulnerable homeless population, but as Oliver and Rodney explained, they saw very quickly that those experiencing homelessness were dealing with a lot more than a cough, a runny nose, and a fever–and yet, they had no reliable means to seek help. Oliver explains that one of the biggest hurdles that those experiencing homelessness face in accessing health care is a lack of funds for transportation to receive health care. Youth, in particular, struggle to receive proper healthcare while experiencing homelessness due to increased vulnerability and not having the right knowledge or guidance to navigate the healthcare system. Without a safe space of stability to build themselves up, Oliver and Rodney said that the sometimes severe trauma that these youth have experienced can really overwhelm them for the worst.
REST Centres applauds the magnificent and impactful work of Oliver, Rodney, and all of Homeless Health Peel in the fight against homelessness in the Peel Region.
To listen to the full conversation about the importance of coordinated healthcare access for people experiencing homelessness, as well as other related topics to homelessness and youth homelessness in the Peel Region, you can subscribe to Homelessness in Hiding: Our Youth Between the Cracks so you won’t miss our newest release.
CONTACT HOMELESS HEALTH PEEL