It takes a lot of work to build trust among the homeless and mentally ill in our community, and that is exactly what Compass Health has done with its drop-in clinic.
Today will mark the start of a rough time for many in our area who relied upon the clinic not only for food and shelter, but friendship and a sense of belonging. Some might be able to handle the clinic’s closure, but others who understood just yesterday that the doors would be closed today might not even be able to remember that now, said Terry Clark, a director for Compass Health.
A change in, or a clamp-down on, Medicaid rules – depending on how you look at it – has stripped the clinic of roughly $100,000 a year. Throughout the state, the loss is a staggering $41 million. As local legislators have pointed out, we have a responsibility to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves and it’s much more cost effective to help them before their problems get worse. While the state must find a long-term solution to the matter, we can address some problems locally – just as this community did when it came forward to make the Providence Everett Healthcare Clinic a reality.
Compass Health needs $62,000 a year to open the clinic again and keep it operating on a very scaled-back level. At least one organization has come forward offering substantial chunks of money for this year and next, as well as help finding matching funds. Church groups have offered possible assistance, too. And others have promised to maintain financial support for food.
About 500 new people stop by the clinic each year, Clark said. Roughly 30 percent are diagnosed with a mental illness. The others are referred to appropriate programs in the community. Of those with a mental illness, nearly all get into treatment and 90 percent of them get into housing. Many who are on their own now but still suffer from mental illness still come by to visit, too.
Caseworkers will do their best to visit those who would have come to the clinic and offer them sack breakfasts and lunches. But it’s unlikely they’ll be able to reach the number of people they did before. Word of mouth brought many homeless and mentally ill people to the clinic, getting them off the streets and into treatment.
The people who visit the drop-in clinic might be the kind you’d cross the street to avoid, but at the clinic they find community, safety and a meal or two.
“We care about them and they know that,” Clark said. “Everybody needs that.”
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